Infected
by HTFBrony333
Summary: Infected is sort of like a zombie apocalypse, but the infected people has red eyes and has intelligence. They can run, jump, smell you, and they can even talk! Based on my OC HTF characters, Cain, a light blue fox and wears a green bandana, loses his mother. Months later, he learns that the world he once knew is gone, replaced by a merciless world he now knows.
1. Chapter 1

**Infected**

**Chapter 1: The Nightmare Begins**

My name is Cain Fox. I'm a light blue fox with brown eyes, and I wear a green bandana around my neck. I'm 16 years old and I only live with my mother. Mom is also a light blue color and has lighter brown eyes. She gave me a bandana for my 5th birthday. My dad left mom, when I was 6. So, we moved into a peaceful town called TwinPetal. When we moved there, we met a green and white fox, who's the same age as my mom, named Alex. Alex and mom got along, and I was pretty alone. I didn't have any friends because I was shy and quiet in school. But soon, I met a brown chubby bear, who wears a shirt that says,

"Hug me, I'm fluffy."

He's extremely hilarious and his name is Pillow. Everything was fine, until everything changed on a Wednesday morning. "Cain! Breakfast!" mom called. I groaned in bed, rolling out as I lazily fell on the floor. I got up, brushed my teeth, fixed my hair, and wore my green bandana. I walked downstairs and saw Alex by the door. "Morning!" he said, smiling. "Morning, Alex!" I greeted. Mom set breakfast on the table. "Hey, Zola?" alex said to my mom. Mom turned to Alex. "Is it okay if I take Cain to school?" Alex asked. "Hmm…well, I don't know." Mom said thinking about it. "Please?" Alex added, making puppy eyes. "Yeah mom, please?" I added, making puppy eyes too. I used to do this all the time when I was three. Alex and I begged until mom sighed, "You're just like my son, alex. Fine…" mom finally said. "YES!" Alex and I happily cried. I quickly finished my breakfast and Alex got ready to drive me to school. "Bye mom!" I said, putting on my book bag as I hugged my mom. "Bye honey. Have a great day at school!" mom said, hugging me and giving me a kiss on the forehead. I got in the car and Alex drove me to TwinPetal High school, a pretty big school. Once I got there, I got out of the car, said thank you to Alex who drove away, and I walked into my school. Like I said before, I don't have any friends in school, pillow is my only friend outside of school. I closed my locker and walked to English class. I sit near the window, I like looking at the window when class didn't start yet. I sat down and looked out of the window. It was a sunny morning and the blue sky was filled with white puffy clouds. Mr. Foller walked in the class and started with the lesson. A few minutes later, Mr. Foller chose me to go to the School Office and drop off the attendance. I took the hallway pass and dropped by at the office. When I finished, I started walking down the hall and looked at the hallway windows. Then, I and saw police cars quickly driving by. Odd, I never seen cops drive around in the town.

Suddenly, I heard it, a loud

*CRASH!*

Coming from the window inside of the boy's bathroom. It startled the heck out of me. I heard screaming and yelling. "What the heck?! Has someone broke into the school?" I thought. I heard boys screaming, and the sound of blood splattering. My face paled as the screaming faded. "H-h-hello?" I said, stuttering. I walked to the boy's bathroom door and opened it. It creaked open and I saw something extremely gruesome. Three guys were on the floor, dead. There was a gray bear, standing in front of them, panting with blood dripping off his hands. I instantly yelled, without thinking,

"HEY!"

The gray bear turned around and his eyes glowed red. His fur was covered in blood and sharp teeth were poking out of his mouth. He growled, walking towards me. The gray bear lunged at me, with his sharp teeth. I moved out of the way as I he pounced on me. He tried biting me, like he was a German shepherd trying to rip me apart. He bit my bandana, choking me. "GYAH! LET GO!" I cried, gagging. I heard a small rip from my bandana and I used my hall pass as a weapon to hit the gray bear across his face. It screeched loudly, almost like it wasn't his voice at all. It sounded like a Sasquatch screech, hurting my ears. The gray bear got ready to try to bite me again as he showed me his sharp teeth once more and was about to bite me until I finally stabbed my hall pass into his stomach,

*Shing!*

I recoiled as the gray red eyed bear fell on me. I quickly pushed him off of me. I panted, trying to catch my breath.

"Wh-what the heck just happened?"

I asked, slowly getting up. Suddenly,

"Attention students! There is something going on in the teacher's lounge and the cafeteria. People has broken into the school and now we ask you for an emergency lockdown right now!"

The announcements came on. "It's happening." I replied. Then, the announcements shut off. It sounded like something…or someone was attacking the principal. Then, I heard it. No, not just me, everyone in the school.

"NO! AHHHHH! GET OFF! GET OFF! HEEELLLLLPPPP MEEEE!"

The principal screamed in agony, as I heard the same screeching noise as the gray bear made. The announcements shut off.

*Silence*

My face expression was in complete shock. Then, the floor shook as students and teachers ran down the hall. It was like a deadly stampede of high school teenagers. I quickly ran into the boy's bathroom as the stampede of screaming and yelling students filled the hall. Careful not to step in a pool of blood, I closed the door and started to hyperventilate.

"I…I…don't believe…believe…it….I...don't believe-"

I needed a paper bag, quick before I pass out. I soon calmed down as the stampede stopped. I put down my hall pass and walked out of the boy's bathroom. I checked to see if it was safe and ran in the school hallway. "I gotta get out of this school, now!" I said as I, finally, exited the school. Then, a blue car quickly skid towards me. The window opened and saw Alex, with a worried look on his face. 'CAIN! GET IN!" Alex quickly cried. I instantly climbed in the car. "What the heck is going on!?" I cried. "Something happened on the news, I couldn't remember what though, but we gotta get your mother before something extremely bad happens." Alex answered, quickly driving to my house. "Is mom going to be alright?" I asked. "I hope so, Cain...I hope so." Alex answered. I had the opportunity to look out the window. It wasn't good, more and more people were getting devoured by these red-eyed monsters! I tried not looking out the window, it was too much for me to handle. Finally, I arrived at my house, but all the windows were broken. "No...NOO!" I yelled, unbuckling my seat belt as I ran to my house, screaming for my mother.

"MOM! MOMMY! WHERE ARE YOU!? PLEASE, SAY SOMETHING!"

I tried to hold in tears as I heard my mother groaning. It came from the kitchen, so I slowly grabbed a fire pit poker and walked into the kitchen. I saw a tail, slowly moving across the floor. I walked to it, and there she was. "MOMMY!" I screamed, putting the fire pit tool down and ran to my mother's aid "Mom!? MOM!" I cried, shaking her. "Ugh...Cain! Honey, be careful!" my mom cried in pain as I saw her right arm, bleeding heavily. "Oh god, when and how did this happened?!" I asked. "It's alright, cain...just go get mommy a first...aid kit, please?" mom asked. I nodded, quickly running to the closet to get the first aid kit. I grabbed the bandages and ran back to my injured mother. I wrapped her injured arm and helped her up. "Can you get up?" I asked. "I think so...thank you Cain, sweetie." mom said, giving me a hug. I returned it and we immediately walking to Alex's car. "Oh god, ZOLA!" Alex screamed, seeing her bloody wound. "I'm fine, Alex. I'm alright." mom said, as I helped her get in the front seat of the car. "Okay, let's-" Alex said, about to drive away until I yelled out,

"WAIT!"

"What!?"

"What about Pillow!? I can't leave him!"

"He's 27 years old, I'm sure he can-"

"NO!"

*Silence*

"Please...he's my only friend...please..."

"Fine, just him and we're out of here." Alex said, driving to pillow's house. When we arrived, I was surprised that his house wasn't damaged. It was normal? "I'll go get him, you two honk the horn if something happened." I said, running to get my best friend. "Be careful, honey!" mom called. I knocked on the door, no response. I started to get worried. I grabbed a chair from outside and threw it at the window.

*Crash!*

"CAIN!?"

I shrugged at Alex. I went through the window, trying not to step on broken glass, and called pillow.

"PILLOW! COME ON PILLOW, WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!"

I screamed. I checked in pillow's room, he wasn't there. My heart started beating fast. I checked everywhere, even the bathroom and closet. Then, there was one more place I haven't checked, the basement.


	2. Chapter 2: On Your Own

**Infected**

**Chapter 2: On Your Own**

I gulped, one sweat drop rolling down the side of my head. The strange thing is that I wasn't scared, I was just nervous. I turned to the basement door, walked to it, and touch the door knob. I took a deep breath,

"Okay…"

I slowly opened the door and walked down the stairs, almost missing the first step. I forgot how deep pillow's stairs are. After reaching the bottom steps, I looked around. The basement was cool and smelled like popcorn a little. Wait, popcorn? I followed the smell and saw pillow, playing games, with a set of headphones on his head. He was eating popcorn while playing. "Pillow!" I called. He didn't hear me. "Pillow! We gotta go-"

"Oh snap! I just beat my high score!"

"Pillow!?"

"MOM! Get me some more potato chips!"

"PILLOW! HEY!"

"MOM!"

"PILLOW!"

"MOM!"

"PILLOW!"

"MOM!"

No matter how many times I called pillow, he's completely into his video game. Wait a minute, if I looked everywhere in the house, I would've seen pillow's mom. But, I didn't. Is she out? No, I saw her car outside. I was getting slightly nervous. I looked everywhere around the room, but there was nowhere to hide in this small room. Suddenly, I felt something wet drop on my head. I flinched, slowly bringing my hand to my head and I saw a string of saliva on my fingers. "Wh-what the heck?" I gasped, slowly looking up to see, pillow's mother on the ceiling. She was on her hands and feet, looking down at me with her hungry red eyes, drooling. Just before I could react, she dropped on top of me. I screamed as I tried to get out of her grip. "PILLOW! PILLOW!" I screamed on the top of my lungs. Pillow, finally turned and saw his mother on top of me. "HELP!" I screamed some more. But, pillow started laughing and went back to his video game. "Oh, cain. I thought you weren't into my mother!" he laughed. I blushed hard, still trying not to get bitten by pillow's mother,

"I'M NOT! NOT ANYMORE!"

"Liar~!"

"I'M NOT FLIPPING LYING!"

"Come on, cain! It's obvious~!"

"DUDE! GET YOUR MOTHER OFF OF ME!"

I punched pillow's mother in the face multiple times. "Not now! Cain! I'm beating this jerk's high score!" Pillow said. Then, I reached for a nearby pipe that always falls on the ceiling, and hit pillow's mother across her face. I did it again and again. Until, my face and body was covered in blood. I panted, glaring at pillow as I walked to the TV in front of him and unplugged it. "Dude!? WHY!?" pillow yelled, ripping his headphones off his head. "What do you think?" I said through my teeth. My face wasn't red from blushing anymore as I calmed down a little. "Come on, we gotta go." I said, grabbing pillow's hand and tried pulling him off the couch, but he was too big and heavy. Not to mention he's strong too. "Now listen, FOX!" pillow angrily yelled, picking me up from my arm when I tried pulling him off the couch. "What's your problem! You know I get angry when you interrupt my gaming mode! Now if you want to apologize, I suggest that you-"

*BOOM!*

A large explosion was outside, cutting pillow off. "What was that?" he asked, dropping me and making me land on my back. "THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN **TRYING** TO TELL YOU!" I yelled, getting up. Pillow's ears dropped. "Sorry." he said. I calmed down, "It's alright, let's just go." I said, running with pillow to the stairs. When I made it to the top, pillow was on the last few steps. He stopped, panting. "Come on! Pillow, hurry!" I called. "Easy fa...you ta say! I hate these stupid stairs!" pillow panted, sweating. I went behind him and pushed him. But, it was like pushing a boulder. "Come you heavy jerk! Almost there!" I said. Finally, pillow and I arrived outside, and we-

*CRASH!*

"CAIN!"

"MOM!? ALEX!"

There were a group of infected animals surrounding Alex's car. "Mom!" I screamed. There was no way I could reach them, there has to be something, ANYTHING! Then, I had an idea, but it's extremely risky. "Pillow!" I called. Pillow walked up to me, panting, drinking a bottle of water. "Seriously?" I asked. But I shook my head, "Listen, you see those group of people right there?" I asked. Pillow faced the group of infected people and nodded. Here we go, "They called you...a glob." I whispered to him. Pillow's eyes widen, he spit out the water and his eyes turned red with anger. "**They called me a WHAT!?"** I backed away from pillow. The one thing you should know about pillow, NEVER call him a glob. Like an angry bull, pillow charged at the infected people and crashed into them like a group of bowling pins. All I could hear was the sound of skulls breaking, infected people screaming, pillow angrily roaring like a grizzly bear, and the sound of glass breaking. When I looked at Alex's car again, pillow was covered in blood and angrily panting. "Alright, buddy. let's go." I said. I ran to Alex's car, relieved to see that they're alright. "Are you alright?" I asked, getting in the car along with pillow. "Yeah, we were waiting for you guys until a group of them started attacking." mom said, covering her arm. "Oh god! You're covered in blood cain, are you alright!?" alex cried. "It's okay, it's not mine. Let's just go." I said, wiping blood off my face. Alex stepped on the gas and we started to drive out of town.

But, soon, the car broke down and mom was growing pale. "Mom? Are you okay?" I asked, worried. Then, I moved her hand, that covered her bandaged arm and saw,

*GASP!*

Mom has been bitten.

Alex and pillow were outside, trying to call for help. "No...no..." I said, repeating, shaking my head. "C-cain...it's alright...just get...alex..." mom weakly said. I nodded my head and screamed for alex. Alex and pillow came running and Alex's face pale. "No...zola...ZOLA!" alex cried, picking her up and carefully placing her on the ground. My eyes welled up with tears. "Mom?" I said as I noticed her eyes were losing their color. "Zola? Please...don't...don't..." alex sobbed, tears flowing out of his eyes. "Alex...ta...take care of my son..." mom coughed as her eyes were starting to flash red. "YOU KNOW I CAN'T DO THAT! I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!" Alex yelled, burying his face onto my mother's chest. I could see my mother's eyes well up with tears as she kissed alex's lips. She pulled away and said, "I love you too...can I talk to my son?" she asked, starting to sound weak. Alex nodded, I walked to my mother and held her in my arms. "Mom?" I said, trying not to cry.

"Ca...in...I want you to...listen to alex...stay strong...keep fighting...for as long as...you can..."

Mom weakly hugged me and I returned it, sobbing. Then, her eyes turned red. "Mom!? MOM!" I screamed. Mom has turned into one of those infected monsters. Pillow quickly picked me up, with one hand. "NO! NO!" I screamed as alex grabbed a sharp large tree branch. "ALEX! NO! PLEASE!" I screamed. "I...I...love you..." alex said as he raised the branch high.

*CRUNCH!*

"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"


	3. Chapter 3: Changed World

** Infected **

**Chapter 3: Changed World **

5 months later...

Well, this is my life now. Nobody is in the streets anymore, no children playing on the sidewalks. Nothing. But, I did manage to survive, like what my mother wanted. But, alex didn't survive for long. He died of a horde of infected people. The only person I have left in the world is Pillow. If I lose him, I would be all alone. Pillow and I evacuated into a small town called Happy Tree Town. We also met them. We saved a light pink fox with purple eyes. She had a little brother with her. He's a red fox and is about 9 years old. Their names are Ryan and Ava. We stayed together and protected one another. But, the town wasn't the same. The Military came and treated us like we were one of those infected people. But, my group of friends changed when pillow decided to break one of he rules.

Yeah, rules. I HATE rules. Here are the list of rules,

#1. Always follow dusk-dawn curfew

#2. Stay FAR away from the gates

#3. Always go through the infected detectors and if you're infected, well...you know what happens.

#4. Don't go out of your homes during Infected Night

#5. Don't disrespect the Dusk Soldiers

Yep, the Dusk Soldiers are those military group I mentioned earlier. They're HORRIBLE soldiers. And I...we never shouldn't have broken one of the rules on that night. I was asleep on the couch, trying to ignore the infected people screeches and gunshots outside, and was tossing and turning. I had a awful nightmare. I was covered in blood, pillow and ryan were infected. Ava was hiding behind me as I tried protecting her. But, I was bitten multiple times by them. Worse, the kept on...laughing. My body felt heavy as I heard a loud

*THUD!*

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

I woke up, sweating. I found myself on the floor as I crawled back on the couch.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

"Who in the world would wake me up this late?"

I got up and answered the door. I saw the red fox, with her eyes closed. "Ava?" I said, waving a hand in her face. Was she sleep walking again? I hope not. "Ava? Hey, are you sleep walking?" I asked, slightly shaking her. Suddenly, ava grabbed my hand, surprising me, and opened her eyes. I gasped as I saw her eyes were...glowing deviously red.


	4. Chapter 4: Breaking The Rules

** Infected **

**Chapter 4: Breaking The Rules **

"NO! NO! NO!"

I screamed, backing away as I ripped my hand from ava's grip. "Th-this can't be happening! How!? T-the infected didn't break in, did they!?" I screamed, accidentally running into the couch and landed there. The light pink fox was walking to me, growling. "Ava! Please! It's me, CAIN! I'm your friend! I don't want to hurt you!" I yelled, begging. Ava continued to walk to me on the couch. She climbed on top of me, still growling. I started trembling in fear, tears welling up in my eyes as I closed my eyes, waiting for infected ava to bite me. But...nothing. Instead I started hearing, laughing? I opened my eyes and saw ava cracking up. "Oh god, now you're insane!" I yelled, freaking out. "HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! *Gasp!* Ha-Ha-ha-ha! N-no, silly!" ava laughed, putting her two fingers on her red eyes. I recoiled, watching as ava took out red eye contacts from her purple eyes. "They're just eye contacts! But you should've seen your face! Oh god! HA-AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" ava laughed. I blushed in embarrassment as ava started to tease me,

"Ava! Please! It's me, CAIN! I'm your friend!"

I rolled my eyes as ava continued to crack up. Unfortunately, I got tired of hearing her, I pushed her off the couch and she landed on her back. I couldn't help but laugh.

"BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"Ha-ha. Listen to me, I'm cracking up."

"But it was funny! Admit it!"

Ava rolled her eyes. "Ava?" a voice, from the door, called. Ava and I turned and saw the young red fox. "Ryan! What are you doing out of bed?" ava asked, sitting on the couch with me. "I...I..." ryan said, embarrassed, closing the door. "Hm?" ava said, waiting for an answer. "I had a nightmare..." ryan finally said. My eyes slightly widen. "Same here..." I thought. "Oh, it's alright, little bro. Those people aren't going to get you." ava said, scooping her little brother in her arms. I smiled, watching ava repeatedly run her hand on the side of Ryan's head, until he fell asleep. Ava yawned. "We better get some sleep...night." ava said, lying down on me. I blushed a little, but I let her and fell back asleep.

20 seconds later...

"HELLOOOOO, SURVIVOR FRIENDS!"

Pillow yelled, busting through the door, startling us. I screamed as ava and I fell off the couch, again. I blushed hard as I realized that I landed on top of Ava. "Oops! U-uh, sorry!" I stuttered, quickly getting off of ava, who blushed too. "What do you want, pillow? Do you know how late it is?" ryan asked, rubbing his eye. "I know~!" pillow replied, smiling.

"I just want to see how my three friends are doing!" pillow added. "Sleeping." Ryan, ava, and I replied at the same time. "Besides that! The reason I'm here is because...we're going on a Scavenger Hunt!" pillow said.

"Why?"

"Because! I'm tired of living my life this way! All we do is eat, sleep, and get infected by those things outside! I want to venture outside during night! See the shops they have and-and the mall!"

"You want to break the rules by venturing outside, during curfew?! Are you nuts!"

"No, I'm Bananas!"

"NO!"

"Come on guys! Please, they don't let the infected people in the town! The Dusk Soldiers has gates that surrounds everything in Happy Tree Town! I'm sure it'll be alright!"

"Dude, no!"

"Please? I already got the game set up! We won't get caught, I promise!"

"Pillow, no-"

"PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!"

Pillow started to say please nonstop. Ryan tried covering his ears, but pillow's high pitch voice was too loud. I knew pillow since the day I moved to TwinPetal. He'll NEVER stop unless you do what he wants you to do.

"PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!"

"**FINE! FUDGING FINE!**"

"Yay~!"

Deep down, I knew that this was a bad idea, I always knew.


	5. Chapter 5: Venturing Out

** Infected **

** Chapter 5: Venturing Out**

"This way you guys."

Pillow whispered as we slowly sneaked through the Dusk Soldier's, behind flipped over cars and buses. When we arrived at Paul's Auto Shop, we closed the door and switched on the lights. "So...what're we doing?" ryan asked. "I told you, scavenger hunt!" pillow replied. Pillow started to look around. "Hmm...now where did I put them?" he asked, looking underneath cars. "What are you looking for?" ava asked. "You'll see once I find-Ah! Here they are!" pillow answered, looking underneath a Toyota and pulled out...a glowing stick? "Uh...pillow? Where did you find that?" I asked. "Hmm...I'll tell you, but you can't be mad at me." pillow replied, grinning. "Where. Did. You. Find. That?" I asked again, through my teeth. "Okaayyy~...uh, at the Happy Tree Mall?" pillow answered, smiling. "Where!?" I yelled. "Shhh! Someone's coming!" ava said, turning off the lights. "What was that?" a voice asked from outside.

"I didn't see anything."

"Must be me. Come on."

Dusk Soldiers walked past the Auto shop and I turned the lights back on.

"Pillow! What the heck!?"

"Ah-ah-ah! You can't be mad at me!"

"How and when did you get to the HTF mall!?"

I yelled, angrily. Just when pillow was about to say something, I stopped him. "Never mind, I don't want to know anymore. What kind of scavenger hunt are we playing?" I asked, changing the subject. "Actually, it's not really a scavenger hunt, it's a game! C'mon, cain, I know how much you love games!" pillow replied, putting a green glowing stick necklace around my neck. I rolled my eyes. "It's called, Capture The Flag! We're going to play it in the dark. We're going to wear these glowing sticks so we know where each other is," pillow explained, putting a yellow glowing stick around ava's neck.

"I put a box in...I'm not saying where, somewhere in the mall. I want you three to find it and bring it to me before curfew is over."

"Curfew isn't over until morning, pillow."

"Hey, that's not fair! You know where the box is!"

"Don't worry, ryan! I won't be playing."

"Where are you going to be during this?"

"Around."

"*Groan*"

"Alright guys, let's do this."

Pillow, ryan, ava, and I sneaked into the Happy Tree Mall. It was much bigger than I expected. Hoping nothing bad will happen along the way, that's all I thought about, safety is all I can think about.


	6. Chapter 6: The Bear With Scissors

** Infected**

**Chapter 6: The Bear With Scissors **

When we entered the destroyed, abandoned, and dark mall, it was very quiet. Ryan was a little scared, but Ava told him to stay close to her. "Alright, you guys ready?!" pillow said, excited. "Shhh! Let's just get this over with." I whispered.

"3...2...1...Go!"

Ava, ryan, and I started to look everywhere. Even in the darkest part of the mall. "Cool! Comics!" ryan quickly said, picking up a comic book. "*gasp!* Attack On Titan manga! I've always wanted to read this, can I keep it, sis? Can I?" ryan asked, begging. "No, we have to-" ava said, shaking her head. Ryan gave her his adorable puppy face expression. Ava groaned, "Fine..." Ryan hugged his sister, then the comic book. I smiled as I remembered that I used to do that to my mother. Then, there was one place that we haven't checked, the Furniture Store. I gulped, "Come on you guys." I said, leading the way. Ryan, using his blue glowing stick as light, was reading his comic book. Then, my foot ran into something hard and cold. "FFFFFFFFFFffffffffff...fudge." I said in pain. "What's wrong?" ava asked. I jumped on one foot while holding the other. "I ran into something! DAMN IT!" I yelled. I looked down and saw the box. "Is this...pillow's box?" ryan asked. I picked it up and smelled it. "Yep...it's pillow's." I said, smiling. "How can you tell?" Ava asked. "Because," I said opening the box.

"This is Pillow's Video Game. He hid it in a small pizza box."

"Figures..."

I gave the box to ava. "Here, you give this to pillow, I'm just going to...look around for some weapons." I said. "Uh, sure? Oh! Here," ava said, giving the box to ryan and gave me a pack of red eye contacts. "Just in case you run into those infected people! Just because the gates surrounds the town doesn't mean that we're safe." ava added. I looked at the pack of red eye contacts, then back at ava. I wanted to kiss this light pink fox so badly, but I know she's not interested in me. We're only friends. "Thank you." I said, gratefully. Ava smiled as she and ryan went back to pillow with the box. I started to look around for weapons, but I couldn't find any.

C'mon! This is a furniture store! There has to be weapons somewhe-

*Snip!*

"Hm?"

*Snip!*

"What the heck is that?"

*Snip!*

I started hearing...snipping noises. Odd, I don't see anyone. I started to ignore the snipping noise, but each time I heard it, it sounded really, really, really close. I slowly turned around, and saw him. An adult gray bear, covered in blood stains, wears a white lab coat, and was holding large scissors. I almost screamed, quickly backing away as I ran into the wall. I didn't say anything to him. I couldn't see his eyes either because they were covered in goggles. He started to walk towards me, scissors opening and closing. "Wh-what the heck do you want from me!? WHAT!?" I yelled, trembling. The bear pointed the scissors directly in front of my heart, like he was aiming to get in that spot. I yelled as the scissor man tried to stab me in my heart. I held onto the scissors, the blades cutting my fingers. I started to scream for help, screamed for pillow, ava, and ryan. Then, I used my leg to kick the scissor man off me. I started running, then I heard snipping sounds from behind me. I turned around and moved out of the way.

*Shing!*

I gasped as the large scissors hit my necklace. I gasped, looking to see the scissor man walking to me. I had trouble taking off my glowing stick, so instead, I used my claws to cut the string off and run off out of the furniture store. I started to run as fast as I could, looking for pillow and ava. "GUYS!" I screamed. Finally, I saw them, waiting for me in the exit of the mall. "There you are! What ha-" pillow asked. "Don't ask! Let's get out of here!" I yelled, pushing pillow to the exit. "Why? We just got here!" pillow said, smiling as he walked from the exit. "Pillow? Pillow. No, you have to listen to me! Pease! PLEAE!" I begged, pointing to the exit. "But, cain. We've only been here for 15 minutes." pillow whined. "That's long enough, let's go now-" I said, pushing the exit door. Suddenly,

*Snip!*

"...Oh no..."

*Snip!*

"What's that noise?"

"Scissors?"

*Snip!*

"Guys! Come on!"

Ava and ryan immediately listened to me, but not pillow. "Pillow! Come on!" I yelled. "Cain, come on! We can't leave yet! This is going to be our first and last time of doing this!" pillow said, excitedly. "NO! LET'S GO!" I yelled. Just before pillow groaned and was about to come with us-

*SHING!*

I watched in horror as silver blades of scissors stabbed pillow. Pillow coughed, he gagged. The scissors escaped his body as he held his stomach. "**PILLOW**!" I screamed. Then, the opening of scissors met with pillows head.

*SHING!*

Pillow's head was cut off, rolling on the ground to me. I tried not to vomit as the scissor man moved pillow's body out of the way.


	7. Chapter 7: Nightmares

**Infected **

** Chapter 7: Nightmares **

"No...no...no..."

I said, repeatedly shaking my head. "Pillow, m-my best fr-friend..." Ava grabbed me and we started running. We sneaked past the Dusk Soldiers again, and we ran to our apartment. Thank god we didn't get caught. Ava placed me on the couch. "Cain? I'm...really sorry about pillow...we both are." ryan said, petting my head. I started sobbing, on the arm of the couch. "Come on, ryan. Let's go back to our room-" ava said, taking her little brother's hand and was about to leave, until,

"**NO!**"

Ava and ryan recoiled. "Please...no...d-don't leave me alone...please..." I begged, shaking ava. Ava placed a hand on my shoulder. "Well...if you really want us to stay, we're staying." she replied, giving me a warm smile. "Uh, cain?" ryan said, with his fox ears down. "Are you going to use your bedroom?" ryan asked. I quickly shook my head. "Go ahead..." I said. ryan smiled, running off to my room to sleep. Ava stayed beside me. She took off her yellow glowing stick and lied down. I tried not to cry hard as it got quiet. Soon, I fell asleep. Another nightmare. This time, it was about the scissor man. I was surrounded by beating hearts, which scared the heck out of me. I heard a familiar scream from above me. It was...

"AVA!"

She kept on screaming, screaming for her brother and me.

"RYAN! CAIN!

Then, I heard a loud splatter of blood and then, ava's cries of agony.

"AVA! NO!"

"Cain! Cain, wake up!"

"Wake up, cain!"

My eyes flew open as I saw ava trying to wake me up. "Cain, wake up! Wake up!" she said, shaking me. I finally was pulled away from my dream. "There, there, cain. It was a nightmare. No more screaming, okay?" ava said. I nodded, smiling. Then, I noticed that ava was on top of me. I blushed, then, ava replied,

"You were talking in your sleep..."

"I...I was?"

"You where talking about...me?"

I blushed harder. "Crap." I thought. "Cain? Why's your face red?" ava asked. "I...I...I..." I said, hesitating. I sighed, "Nothing...I'm fine..." I finally said. Ava smirked, as she stared right at me. "Uh...ava-" I said. Suddenly, soft lips touched mine. My eyes widen, ava kissed me. Then, I shut my eyes and kissed her back. Ava pulled away, my face is still red. "I think I found the reason why your face is always turning red." ava smiled, adorably. My redness of my face faded a little as I kissed her again. Ava wrapped her arms around me and returned it. I pulled away, feeling better about pillow, but I was still a little scared about the scissor man. But, I knew he couldn't get to us, the dusk soldiers are guarding the night. Ava and I spent a few minutes kissing each other.

"I love you, cain."

"I...I love you too, ava."


	8. Chapter 8: Prisoned

Infected

**Chapter 8: Prisoned**

Thank god that I didn't get anymore nightmares. I woke up the next morning and realized that ava was gone. I looked in my room to see that ryan is also gone. "They must've went home." I thought. I got up, picking up my bandana, putting it on, and went outside to go to ryan and ava's apartment room. "Hey guys! Wake up! You don't want the Dusk Soldiers to wake you up, do ya?" I said, with my tail wagging. My tail wags when I'm excited to see someone, don't judge me! No response. My tail stopped wagging as I knocked again. "Ava? Ryan?" I said again.

No response.

"Maybe they woke up before me?"

I shrugged my shoulders and started to walk outside of the apartment. When I did,

"Freeze!"

I stopped walking and looked to my left. A group of Dusk Soldiers had their guns pointed directly at me. "Whoa! Whoa! What did I do?! All I did was get out of bed, and now you're causing trouble!?" I yelled, with my hands up. "Get on your knees!" another soldier yelled.

"Wha-"

"GET ON YOUR KNEES!"

I rolled my eyes and, with my hands still up, I got on my knees. "Now what? What do you want me to do? Bow down to you?" I said, smirking. Suddenly, something hit me on the back of my head, knocking me out.

...

"Cain! Wake up! Please, cain! Wake up!"

"Give up, princess, he's been hit hard."

"B-but, Ian! He's strong! Cain's strong, I know he can-"

"OI! What part of he's out cold don't you understand, you FLOOSY!"

"Don't call my sister a floosy you jerk!"

"Yeah, stop being such a jerk, Raven."

"Shut it!"

"Ah! Sis, cain's waking up!"

"Cain!"

I woke up, with intense pain from the back of my head. "Owww...what the heck happen?" I asked. "Well...we've been caught." ryan answered. "Crap..." I thought. A black and white cat went behind me and wrapped my head with bandages. "You guys broke the rules too?" I asked. "Yep, we fucked up." he answered. When he was done, a orange cat with blue hair and eyes walked up to me and held his hand out. "Ava told us a lot about you, cain." he said, helping me up. "I'm Ian. That's raven,"

"Hey."

"Rai."

I turned to a red and light red cat. He turned away, looking out the window. "And that's Lakey." I turned to a yellow cat with light brown on his ears and tail. His torso is white and he has a very cheerful personality. Lakey was wearing a red cap on his head, backwards. "Sup!" Then, I noticed a gray and white cat, in the corner of the room. "Who's that?" I asked, pointing to it. Ian turned to the cat and said,

"That's Shadow. She's extremely shy and I don't think she talks."

"Awww.." I said, walking up to the cat, who quickly ran and hid underneath the bed. "Whoa! I'm not going to hurt you!" I said. "I wouldn't waste your breath. She's not worth talking to." Rai said, still looking out of the window. "Rai! Don't say that!" Raven yelled. "Hey, don't yell at me! You say that too!" rai screamed at him, jumping off the top bunk bed. "I DO NOT!" Raven yelled. Raven and Rai started arguing at each other. "Hey, hey, hey! Guys! Don't fight, we're bros!" Lakey said, putting an arm around Raven and Rai. But, an angry vein appeared on rai and raven's head as they both yelled at lakey,

"**Shut that hole in your face!**"

Lakey's face expression was a shocked face expression. His face stayed like that. Ava, ryan, and ian tried breaking up the fight rai and raven was having. Before I knew it, the entire jail cell was filled with screaming. I covered my ears, anger slowly filling me up, and I yelled,

"**ENOUGH!**"

Ryan, ian, ava, lakey, raven, and rai turned to me. "What the heck is the matter with you guys!?" I yelled. "Aren't you guys a team!? Friends!? Friends, don't argue! They work TOGETHER! Right now, you guys are acting like a bunch of KIDS!" "Hey!?" ryan growled. "Except you, ryan." I added.

Ryan smiled warmly.

*Silence*

"Yeah...you're right...sorry."

Rai said, looking away at raven. "Tch...Right..." raven sucked his cheeks. "Cain's right. We've been here for a MONTH, guys. We still didn't even think of an escape plan. If we're going to be a team, we're going to need a plan," Ian said. "So cain...got an ideas?" "Wait! I got one!" Lakey said, with a large smile on his face and his brown eyes gleaming with excitement. "What if...we capture one of the guards, take their outfits, gather information that's going on around the prison, aaannnnndddd...BOOM! We are freee!" Lakey said, smiling at us, waiting for our response.

*Silence*

"You don't like my idea?" lakey whined. "No, no...that's actually a great idea, Lakey." Ian said, smiling. Lakey's face turned red. "Aw, shucks." he said, bashfully. "But it's risky." Rai added. "CRRRAAAPPP!" Lakey yelled, running to a bunk bed to bury his face in a pillow. "So, one of us has to do it." Raven said. "You know I can't fight." ryan said, quickly. "We need someone...slim. Who can squeeze through these bars." Ian said. Everyone looked at me. "Me? But I can't-" I said, shaking my head. Suddenly,

"I can."

I turned around and saw the shy gray and white kitten crawling out from underneath the bed. "Oh! So you CAN talk!" lakey said, happily. Shadow slowly nodded her head. "I'm...shy and...quiet." shadow said, quietly.

*Silence*

"I like her."

Ryan suddenly said, blushing. Shadow whimpered, blushing embarrassedly. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Shadow nodded her head. "Okay, here's what we are going to do..." Lakey said, slowly repeating his plan.


	9. Chapter 9: Escape

**Infected**

**Chapter 9: Escape **

The plan was risky. Shadow needed to squeeze through the jail bars and try to get the keys. Lakey and I needed to escape first to knock out two guards and take their outfits. When we do that, we need to find where the boss is and gather information. When we do that, we go back to our jail cell, tell everyone what their plan is, and escape. Sounds easy right? Well, it wasn't. Another part of the plan was to find something to help us escape, for example, a car. None of us knows how to drive so...that's out of the question. But, we'll figure it out somehow, tonight, we escape. If we mess up, it's over. The next day, shadow was ready to do her part of the plan. "Are you ready, shadow?" I asked, petting her until she purred. "Mm-Hm!" shadow nodded, watching a dusk soldier walk past our jail cell, and saw the golden keys hanging by his belt. "Him." shadow whispered, pointing to him. "Alright shadow, do your thing." Ian said, giving her an eager smile. Shadow squeezed through the jail bars and followed the dusk soldier. "By the way, why did you guys name her Shadow?" ava asked rai. "Well, her fur color matches the shadow, so she camouflages in the dark. Pretty hard to see her if you ask me." he answered, watching shadow hide in the shadow when the dusk soldier turned around. Shadow managed to grab the golden keys from his belt, and quickly running back to us. "Good job, shadow!" lakey said, hugging her. Shadow gave the keys to me and lakey and I got out. We closed the jail door, without locking it, and we were getting ready for our part. Then, I felt a hand touch mine. I turned to see ava with a worried look on her face. "You be careful, okay?" she said, letting go of my hand. I smiled and gave her a kiss on her forehead.

"Don't worry, ava. I'll be back." I gently said to her as I followed lakey. We ran down the hall, hid in the darkness of the corner, and saw two dusk soldiers coming. "Here's our chance! Get ready dude." lakey whispered. I nodded as the dusk soldiers got closer and closer. Finally, at the same time, lakey and I grabbed them, dragged them in the corner of the darkness and...

*Whack!*

*Pow!*

*Punch!*

We knocked the day lights out of them! "That's for keeping me here for a month!" lakey said, cracking his knuckles. We took their uniforms, which was surprisingly easy to put on, and we started to walk down the hall. "Ugh! How do these guys walk in these things?!" lakey said, struggling to keep his boot up. "Shhh! Come on, if we keep these masks on, they won't know that we escaped, alright?" I said, whispered. "Just hold on." Lakey and I continued to walk down the hall, searching for the boss's room, until,

"Hey! What are you two doing!?"

Lakey and I gasped as we turned around and saw a dusk soldier running towards us. "The boss wants us to be at the laboratory, ASAP. Hey...since when you two looked young?" he said, noticing how short we were. "U-uh! P-puberty?!" lakey quickly answered.

*Silence*

A sweat drop rolled down my head as I looked at lakey, "Puberty? Seriously?" I thought. Luckily, the soldier shivered as he said, "Whatever, just get your tails over to the laboratory." We started following him to the laboratory, and it was huge. There was a bunch of dusk soldiers gathered. Someone was talking in the center. "You stay here, I'll go in the center to get a better look." I whispered to lakey. "Aye-aye!" lakey whispered back, cheerfully. I sneaked past dusk soldiers to get a better look. I started to hear the person talking.

"Boys. It's time we follow what's on the plan. You all know your parts, correct?"

"YES, SIR!"

"Are you sure?"

"Well, to be honest, sir. You never told us the plan yet..."

My eyes widen as I saw who the boss was...it was the scissor bear. He wasn't wearing his goggles, he has blood red eyes, I shuddered. The scissor bear walked up the group of dusk soldiers. He talked to the group of soldiers, surprisingly in a calm voice. Suddenly, he grabbed a dusk soldier by the mask. I watched in horror as he grabbed his large pair of scissors.

"NO! PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME SIR! I-I PROMISE I'LL LISTEN CAREFULLY, PLEASE DON'T!"

Someone needed to stop this monster. I felt a little guilty for the dusk soldiers. What if they aren't really evil? They were forced to work with him? I couldn't take it anymore.

"STOP!"

I screamed from the top of my lungs. Just before the scissor bear could kill the dusk soldier, he froze and looked at me. I felt my body tremble as he put the dusk soldier down. "Well, well. If it isn't trouble maker Duke." the scissor bear said, walking to me with the large shiny scissors. "D-duke?" I thought. I looked down at my jacket and there was a nametag clipped onto it. It said Duke, of course it did. "Y'know duke, for all the trouble you were making lately with your buddy, Gregory, I should kill you right now." he said, walking around me. I gulped, "Me and my big fat mouth." I thought to myself. "But...everyone deserves second chances." the scissor bear said. I growled a little,

"You didn't give him a second chance."

I said, in a deep voice, pointing to the trembling soldier. "True. I didn't. But, I give special people second chances, duke." "S-special...?" I thought. "No matter...I said to much, remember the plan, duke?" the scissor bear said, stopping in front of me. "Dang it..." I thought again, a sweat drop rolling down my head.

*Silence*

"I'm waiting...duke." the scissor bear snapped, showing me his large scissors. Just when I was going to say something,

"No! Uh, sir! I remember the plan!"

I gasped as I recognized the voice. "L-lakey!? No..nononono..." I thought as lakey pushed his way out of the crowd. "Well, well. George." the scissor bear said, turning away from me and walked to lakey. I can hear lakey gulp as the scissor bear grinned. "Tell me George, since you sticked up for duke, want to tell me what the plan is?" Lakey gulped and answered,

"U-uh...to lure our prisoners outside where a horde of infected people are coming. They're chewing their way out of the gate and if that happens, the whole town will be filled with infected. Our j-job is to lure our prisoners to them, and while they're distracted, w-we...escape?"

*Silence*

I can see Lakey's brown eyes fill with relief as the scissor bear lowered his scissors. "Thank you, George." the scissor man said, petting lakey on his head. I sighed I relief. "You heard George, everyone. At 5:30, we round up the prisoners outside and let the infected horde in. While the infected are distracted, we escape through the jeeps in the garage. Understood?" the scissor man said.

"Yes, sir!"

We all walked out of the laboratory and ran back to the knocked out soldiers. We took off their cloths and ran back to our jail cell." Dude, how did you know?" I asked, amazed. "Well...let's just say I asked one of the soldiers while you were getting called on." Lakey answered. "Thanks." I replied, as lakey and I ran down the hall. "Oh! Oh! Wait!" lakey said, stopping. "What? What?" I said, in a rush. Lakey grabbed a empty bag fro the corner, emptied it out, and said, "Hold on! I gotta do something really quick!" lakey said, running off. "What!? But that's not part of the plan, lakey!" I said. Too late, lakey ran off and I had to run all the way back to our cell. I told everyone what happened and let them out. "That sick, twisted, heinous, monster." Ian angrily commented. "I know that he's a bad guy and all, but he's insane." ryan said. "Where's lakey?" raven asked. I sighed, "I dunno, he said he had to do something and ran off. I tried telling him it wasn't in the plan but-"

Suddenly,

"Guys! Hey!"

We all turned around and saw lakey, with a full large bag. "What's that?" rai asked. "Food, of course!" lakey grinned, answering. "Ugh, whatever, let's just hurry up and leave!" ian said, as we all ran down to the garage. I looked down the hall and saw that two guards were guarding it. "Crap, there's two guards!" I said, whispering. "I got an idea!" shadow said, jumping into the shadow. I literally couldn't see her, but I saw the tip of her tail. I watched as shadow started to mess around with the soldier. I saw her whisper in his ear, which got him angry at the other soldier. "Dude, why'd you say that about my grandmother?" he said, growling. "Huh? I didn't say anything!" the other soldier said, confused. "Don't lie, I heard you!" the angry soldier yelled. "I'm not lying!" the other soldier yelled back. Before we knew it, they started fighting. Sooner or later, they were both knocked out. Shadow leaped out of the shadows. "Ta-daa!" "Yes! Great job, Shadow!" Rai praised, petting shadow's head. Suddenly, the alarm went off. They must've realize that we're missing. "Hurry! Come on!" I said, grabbing the garage door, but it wouldn't open. "No! No!" I quickly said, trying to knock it down. "Allow me..." Ian said, claws popping out of his fingertips as he tried to use his claw to pick the lock. "Come on, hurry Ian!" ava aid, hearing footsteps from the hall. "Does it look like I am!?" ian said, using his pointer finger claw. Finally,

*Click!*

"It opened! Come let's-" ryan said, opening the door until,

*Bang!*

We froze, hearing a loud bang from the end of the hall. We turned to see hands sticking out of a metal thick wall. "I-infected!? I thought the gates were holding them!?" raven said. Then, faces stared to pop out and we screamed. We ran in the garage and closed the door. I heard the wall give out, pounding and scratching was on the door. "Hurry!" I cried, raven and I holding the door shut. Then, lakey, ava, shadow, ryan, and ian climbed in a large jeep. "Don't worry guys! Imma hot wire this jeep!" lakey said. "Do! You! Even! Know how! To hot wire! A jeep!?" I cried, struggling to hold the door as hands started to pop out of the door. "Nope! But I'll try! I see this in movies a lot!" lakey said. I saw flashes of light coming from the car. Suddenly, raven screamed in pain. "Raven! Are you alright!?" I cried. Raven punched an infected wolf and quickly turned back to me. "Y-yeah...I'm fine..." raven said. Then, I heard the car start. "Guys! I did it! Come on!" lakey cried. I grabbed raven and we jumped in the jeep. Just in time before the infected could bite us. Ian stepped on the gas and we crashed into the garage door, escaping from the prison. "YES! We did it!" ava happily cried. We all let out happy cries as we drove into the forest, away from Happy Tree Town.


	10. Chapter 10: Desicions

**Infected **

**Chapter 10: Decisions **

We stopped in a nearby large house with a gate. Hopefully, the infected won't notice us. Justin case if that happens, we cover the windows with blinds. When we were done, we started to eat some food lakey got for us. "Man, if it weren't for cain telling us to team up and escape together, we would've been still at the prison!" lakey said, eating his apples. "Lakey. Swallow." Ava said, drinking her water. Lakey swallowed his food, forgetting what he was saying. "What was I saying?" lakey asked us. "You where saying how awesome Ian is." ian said, smiling. "I...was?" lakey said, confused. We all started laughing, except lakey and raven. "Uh...cain?" raven said, quietly. I turned to him. "Can I speak to you for a second?" he asked, getting up and pointed to the left hallway. "Alright, what did you do to him?" ian asked, skeptically. "Huh? What did I do to him?" I asked. "When raven wants to speak to someone, he's usually mad...usually." lakey said. I gulped, following raven to the left hallway and we entered a bedroom. "So...uh, what's up?" I asked, nervously. "Don't worry, I overheard what ian and lakey said, I'm not mad." raven said, turning to me. I sighed in relief. "So, what's the problem, raven?" I asked, more calmly. "W-well..." raven stuttered, nervous. He turned to me, showed me his wrist-

*GASP!*

There was a bite mark on his wrist. He's been infected. "No...no, raven...you..." I said, breathing heavily. "I...didn't want anyone to...Y'know...freak out." raven said, sadly. "Freak out!? Raven, everyone's gonna flip! You gotta tell-" I said, grabbing his hand. "**NO!**" raven quickly said, ripping his hand away from me. "Please...I don't want anyone to worry...mostly Rai." raven said, looking down. "Rai?" I asked, confused. "Don't you two hate each other? Don't you remember that fight back at the prison?" I asked. "Yeah...but believe it or not, rai is my best friend. If he finds out if I'm infected, HE'S the one who's going to lose it," raven said. "No...NOOO!" I yelled, punching the wall. "Please, cain. This may be my last day here with everyone. And...this is my final request...please don't tell anyone, especially rai, that I'm infected...just forget about it..."

"Just forget about it?!"

I turned to raven.

"Just forget that you're infected?! You say that as if it was nothing! That's like telling me to forget that I love ava! I can't forget that my own friend is DYING!"

"Cain...just don't tell anyone. I don't want my last moments to be such pain and despair. I definitely don't want anyone to pity me."

I turned away from raven. "If you tell anyone...that's fine...but remember, I don't want my last moments to be such pain an despair." Raven added, walking out of the bedroom. I ran my hands in my hair. I sat down on bed as raven's quote echoed in my head.

"Cain...just don't tell anyone. I don't want my last moments to be such pain and despair. I definitely don't want anyone to pity me."

"Dang it...god dang it..." I growled to myself.

What should I do? Should I tell everyone? Or keep it to myself until raven turns?


	11. Chapter 11: Anger

**Infected **

**Chapter 11: Anger **

There was a knock on the door. I hesitated, then said,

"Come in."

Ryan came in. "Hiya, cain! Want an apple?" ryan asked, closing the door and sat on the bed with me. "N-no thanks, ryan." I said. Ryan shrugged and ate the apple. "Should I tell ryan? He's young...but I don't want him to tell ava either." I thought. I sighed, it's settle, I'm going to tell ryan, but tell him not to tell anyone else either. "Ryan." I said, looking at him. "Yes, cain?" ryan said, swallowing the last of the apple. "Raven...he's been...infected." I said, looking down. Ryan's ears went down and his smile faded. "Wh-what?" ryan said. "B-but...no...he's..."

"Listen, I want you to keep it from everyone else, especially for ian and rai."

"What, why?"

"Raven doesn't want his last moments to be full of sadness and despair...he want everyone to be happy until...it happens..."

"Full of pain and despair...I understand but, ian needs to KNOW cain!"

"You have no idea how much I want to tell ian and rai but, I don't want raven to be disappointed."

"Rai? I thought they hate each other. Remember the fight back at the prison?"

"To tell you the truth, raven and rai are best friends. If rai finds out raven is infected, he's going to lose it."

"Oh...I see..."

"Remember, don't tell anyone until it happens...not even ava."

"Ava? I thought you trust her. Don't you?"

"I do. I love her too, but like I said, raven doesn't want his last moments to be full of pain and despair."

Ryan looked down. "I get it...I won't tell anyone...for raven's sake..." ryan said, smiling at me. I smiled back and gave him a ruffle on the head. After that conversation was over, ryan didn't tell anyone about raven's bite. Good, but what scared me the most is the day raven turns, and how rai reacts.

The next morning...

I woke up first. I looked around and noticed that raven is gone. "Crap...crap..." I said, faintly looking around the room for him. I noticed he was still asleep on the couch. I sighed in relief. I got up and decided to go to the bathroom. When I finished doing my business, I looked in the mirror and noticed that someone was behind me. I quickly turned around and saw infected raven. How!? Raven was sleeping on the couch! Raven lunged at me and tried biting me. I started screaming and yelling,

"HELP! IAN! RAI! AVAAA!"

Then, raven bit my neck and hands,

"NOOO!"

*GASP!*

I woke up, drenched in sweat. A nightmare? A really bad nightmare? I wiped the sweat from my forehead. "Good morning, sleeping beauty." ian said, chaffing. "Morning..." I said, panting. "Are you okay dude?" lakey asked. I quickly nodded my head. Then, ava woke up. She yawned, cutely. "Morning, sis!" ryan said, hugging her. "Morning, where's raven?" ava said, looking around to notice that raven isn't on the couch. My eyes widen. "Raven is asleep in the other room. Want to go wake his lazy tail up and tell him that we need to move?" ian asked, packing the large black bag with water bottles and food, from the prison lakey got for us. "Sure!" ava said, getting up and walked to the room from the left. I nervously got up and felt a tug on my arm. I looked to my left and ryan asked me, whispering,

"It's time?"

Just before I could answer,

"RAVEN!? RAVEN!"

We all turned and ran to the bedroom raven was sleeping. Ian bust through the door, "Oh my god!" he yelled. I ran in and saw raven trying to bite ava. "AVA!" ryan and I yelled. Ian quickly grabbed a nearby chair and hit it at raven, nonstop. Finally,

*CRASH!*

With one final strike, ian finished infected raven off. Blood, painted the walls and windows. Rai began to hyperventilate. "No...No...ra-raven..." rai breathed heavily. "Are you alright?" I asked ava, worried. She was trembling in fear, she nodded her head as she grabbed onto me and burst into tears. I embraced her and turned to rai, who walked to raven's dead body. "When...how...why..." he said, falling to his knees and tears constantly falling. Lakey placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "It's alright, rai. He's in a better place..." he said. I looked down, god I feel awful! I took ava off of me and walked to rai. "Rai...there's something you should know..." I said, looking at ryan, who was looking back at me, worried. "Wh-whatever it is...safe it..." rai sobbed, covering his eyes. I hesitated, then I said,

"I...I knew about raven's bite wound."

*Silence*

"D-dude...what did you say?"

I heard lakey say. I took a deep breath and sighed,

"I knew about raven's bite. He told me yesterday. He told me to keep it from you guys because he didn't want his last moments to be full of pain and despair. You guys had no idea how much I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want raven to be disappoint-"

Suddenly, rai got up and punched me right in the face. I fell on the floor, wailing in pain as my nose started to sting. "You knew...you knew all this time and yet you didn't bother to TELL us!?" rai yelled, walking to me and grabbed my bandana. I gasped as he slammed me onto the wall, chocking me. "Rai! Let him go!" ian cried, running to loosen the grip around my neck. I continued to choke and gag. Lakey ran to help as shadow, ryan, and ava watched in horror. "Dude! Let him go! You're killing him!" lakey screamed. "NO! This fox kept something from us that we SHOULD'VE known since yesterday!" rai yelled, choking me harder. My feet were off the ground as my face started to turn blue, darker than my fur color. I placed my hands on rai's wrists.

"P...ple...please..."

"SHUT IT!"

Rai used his knees to kick me in the stomach. I coughed up blood as he threw me on the ground. Ian and lakey were trying to hold rai back, but the red and light red cat shook them off of him. I gasped for air and coughed. I weakly got up and rai grabbed my head and threw me onto the wall.

"URGH!"

I grunted loudly, landing on my stomach again. Rai started to walk to me. I started to crawl away, desperately, but lakey ran in front of him.

"RAI! KNOCK IT OFF!"

Lakey yelled, holding out his arms. "Out of the way, lakey. I need to teach that NOBODY a lesson." rai growled, claws popping out of his fingertips.

"Don't you think cain at least TRIED to prevent this from happening!? Beating the hell out of cain won't bring raven back! If raven was alive right now, do you think he'd actually WANT you to do this to cain!? He helped us escaped for god's sake!"

Lakey yelled. Rai calmed down a little. I still was crawling away, but soon turned back around. I was panting, blood dripping from my nose. I tried so hard not to cry, I was also trembling. Rai's claws went back into his fingertips as he turned to me. I recoiled, but he turned away. Ava and ryan helped me up, "Are you alright?" ava asked. I didn't say anything, nor did I say a word when we drove out of the unwanted house, leaving raven there.


	12. Chapter 12: Forgiveness

**Infected **

**Chapter 12: Forgiveness **

We found another house, but this one doesn't have a gate. Our only hope is that no infected notices us or sees us. Ian and lakey were calming rai down, ryan and shadow were eating some blueberries, and ava was cleaning my nose.

"I-is it broken?"

"I don't think so, just bruised."

"Bruised?"

"I'm no doctor, but it could take up to 7-10 days to completely disappear...depends how bad it is."

I sighed as ava put a Band-Aid on my heart-shaped nose. She also gave me a gentle kiss on my nose, which made me feel better, a little. "You okay, cain?" shadow asked, worried. I shook my head, placing my hands on my face, away from my nose. Sooner or later, we started to move out, hoping to find more survivors or survivors finding us. I walked behind from everyone, even rai. I felt extremely bad for keeping something from them, especially for rai. Then, something unexpected happened, rai walked up to me and started to walk with me.

"Hey, cain..."

"...Hi..."

"Listen, I'm sorry for almost killing you back at...the house."

"...It's fine...I deserved that...I should've told you but, I didn't want raven to be disappointed."

"Uh, now's probably the worst time to tell you but, I have anger issues..."

"Anger issues?"

"Yeah...I get angry really easily...I should've told you since we met."

"S-so...you regret something too?"

Rai nodded and held his hand out. "Truce?" I hesitated and smiled. "Truce." I said, shaking rai's hand as I felt better. Rai and I are friends again, thank god. I happily caught up to ian, shadow, ryan, lakey, and ava.


	13. Chapter 13: Survivors

**Infected **

**Chapter 13: Survivors **

The sky was gray and the air smelled like it was going to rain. "Uh...ian?" shadow said suddenly. Ian turned to the gray and white cat. "It's going to rain. I don't like getting my fur wet." she said. "It is-" ian asked, looking up. Suddenly, rain started to fall, heavily. "Well...crap." lakey said, his ears down. I looked around, and noticed two pairs of red eyes peering out of the darkness of the forest. "U-uh...guys?" ryan cried, noticing and hid behind ian. "Oh snap!" lakey added, as we were surrounded by infected. We backed away, more and more infected people coming out of the bushes, jumping out of trees, and looking at us with hungry eyes. Then, rai noticed an infected bunny about to lunge at me and bite me. He pushed me out of the way and the bunny bit him instead. "RAI!" we all yelled. "RUN! GO-NNNNNNNNYAAAHHHHH!" Rai screamed as more and more infected animals tackled him and started to devour him. My eyes widen in shock. "RAI! NO!" I yelled. Lakey grabbed my hand and we started to run as fast as we could. Eventually, we ran into a dead end. "Dang it, I knew I should've carried weapons with me back at the prison!" lakey said, his cat ears flatten his head. Ryan and shadow began sobbing, ian tried to clam them down. Lakey was desperately searching his bag for ANYTHING to use as a weapon, and I was protecting ava from the infected animals as they got closer and closer. Suddenly,

*Fwoop!*

I flinched as an arrow hit an infected wolf's head. "Hey! Move! MOVE!" a voice from above yelled. We quickly turned around and saw a light tan bear, with arrows on his back and a bow in his hand. "Tank! Save them!" he yelled, shooting another arrow at a another infected head. Large hands grabbed ava, ian, lakey, and ryan. I turned to my left to see a large gorilla grab most of my friends, jump from tree to tree, and put them down to safety. Shadow ran into my arms, sobbing saying,

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

Then,

"Maiko! Those two!"

A yellow chipmunk, wearing a bright red shirt, jumped from a tree, accidentally tripped on a tree twig when she ran, and tumbled down in a cloud of dust and crashed into me.

"ACK!"

We both grunted. "Damn it, not again. Tank! Once more!" the light tan bear growled. The gorilla jumped down again and saved shadow, the yellow chipmunk, and me. "This way!" the bear yelled as we followed him deep into the forest. When we were safe, he asked us if any of us where injured. We all shook our heads no, then I remembered about rai's death. I tried not to cry, wiping tears away from my face. "What're your names?" the bear asked. "That's none of your-" ian answered. Then lakey interrupted ian and answered,

"I'm Lakey! This is Ian, Ava, Shadow, Ryan, Cain, and Rai-...oh yeah..."

Lakey's ears went down as he remembered rai's death. We were all completely disconsolate.

The light tan bear noticed. "We're sorry for your lost. But, that's what the world is now...full of death, pain, and despair. I'm Aizen. That's Tank and Maiko." I turned to the large gorilla, who smiled and waved. I smiled back and turned to my right to find the yellow chipmunk. Maiko was looking at me, smiling and waving like tank. I waved back, "Are there more of you guys?" shadow asked. "Well...there's three more back at the house." Aizen answered. "House?" ava asked. "Yeah, I guarantee you, this is the 100% safest house I know!" Aizen answered, giving us a trusting smile. Then, I stopped walking as we exited the forest, the rain got a little harder. "There! That's the safe house!" Aizen said, pointing to a huge house. "Wow." Lakey whistled. We walked to it and Aizen knocked on the door. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, my Grandpa can be a real...pain...so mind your manners, alright? Tank." Aizen added, then glaring at the large gorilla who smirked. Then, a dark tan bear, wearing a blue sweater and had a big belly answered the door. "Aizen! I was so worried about you!" she said, sighing in relief as she hugged Aizen. "I'm fine, mom! We all are." Aizen said, smiling. "I'm glad you came, Angel was really worried about you." aizen's mother said, a light tan bear, younger than ryan and shadow, appeared from behind aizen's mother. He had a green sweater on, blue eyes, brunette short hair, and wore a blue winter hat. The little bear walked to Aizen and hugged him. "You were worried about me little bro?" Aizen smiled, gently giving the young bear a ruffle on the head. Angel nodded. "Oh! Mom, angel! Tank, Maiko, and I found more survivors. That's Ian, Ava, Shadow, Ryan, and Cain!" Aizen said, introducing us to his family.

"Hi! I'm Linda! This is my son, Angel. Go on, angel, say hello." aizen's mother smiled warmly, as she let us in the house and closed the door. Angel hid behind Aizen and quietly said,

"Hello..."

He is also very shy, peace loving and has a very soft voice.

"Awww! You're so cute!" ava said, smiling. Angel hid his face in his blue winter cap. "Th-thank you..." he quietly said.

Then,

"What's all the racket!? Can't an old man get some peace and motherfudging quiet for once!?"

A old cranky voice from upstairs yelled, as a white bear walked down the steps, almost falling down. "Oh! Daddy! We found more survi-" Linda said. "Did anybody tell you to talk?!" snapped the white old bear. Linda sadly looked down. So far, I do not like this man...one bit. "Grandpa, you need to keep your voice down. You'll get a heart attack!" Aizen said. "I can yell all I want! Do us all a favor and make out with your girlfriend somewhere else!" the white grandpa bear growled, pointing at maiko, who blushed heavily. "I-I don't like Aizen!" Maiko stuttered. Aizen turned to maiko,

"You don't like me?"

"N-no, I DO like you, but not like in a romantic way!"

"LIAR! She's a liar I say!"

"I'm not! Thomas, I'm not lying!"

"Aizen, she's blushing! It's obvious!"

"I-I..I...I..."

"ENOUGH!"

Linda yelled, breaking the argument, "Dad, if you're hear to cause anymore trouble, you can go outside and sit in the rain!"

*Silence*

"Whatever..." the old bear said, going back upstairs. I sighed, "Yep, this is hell."


	14. Chapter 14: Back To School

**Infected **

**Chapter 14: Back To School**

Living with aizen's family wasn't bad, except Thomas, his cranky grandfather, keeps on bugging me. Whenever I sit down somewhere, he just yells,

"GET YOUR BUTT OFF MY SEAT!"

Even when we're both sitting down somewhere. I got tired of him. Aizen told me that he'll get use to me...eventually. When ava asked him if Linda is expecting another cub, he nods his head yes. "Wow! Really? I'm so happy for you and Angel!" ava said, smiling. "So, where's your father?" I asked. "Well...uh, he said that he's going to find more weapons for us. You see, my dad is...well used to be a construction worker. He can handle many tools! He said that he needed to go get some more weapons for us, including grandpa, but he didn't come back yet and I'm getting worried." Aizen answered. "Oh...where did he go?" I added, feeling bad for asking where his dad is. "He went to a high school before all of this happens, to fix a broken sink, and he didn't come back..." Aizen said sadly. I started to think a little, then I asked,

"Why don't you look for him?"

Aizen pointed at his grandpa, who's sleeping on the couch. I slapped my face with my hand, "Figures..." "Well, while he's asleep, you can look for him!" ava said. Aizen looked at his mother. "I don't want to leave my mom with HIM." "Don't worry, Aizen! Ian, lakey, shadow, ryan, and I can stay here and watch your mother." ava said, still smiling. "Yeah, Tank, maiko, you, and I can go to the school and find your father." I said. Aizen looked at his grandfather, walked to his mother and asked her if he can go find some food for dinner. She nodded her head, "Of course! But, you gotta take Angel." she said. Angel's ears perked up when he heard his name. "Alright, come on, guys." Aizen said, whispering. Tank, maiko, angel, Aizen, and I started to walk to the school. "So, what's this school called?" maiko asked. "Starwood High School. It's a public high school, I used to see students wear school uniforms." Aizen answered, whispering. The school wasn't far, in fact, it was near Happy Tree Town. It's a small school, not what I expected. "Come on." Aizen whispered. We went to the school doors, which was wide open, and looked around. It was dark, broken glass everywhere, portraits of teachers and principals were on the ground, torn apart. Angel hid behind tank, the large gorilla picked him up and protected him. Suddenly, I heard it, I heard the noise that made my heart stop.

*Snip!*

*Snip!*

*Snip!*

"No..."

I quickly turned around, hearing the same snipping noise from pillow's game. "What's that?" Aizen asked. Tank looked around, and started to sniff the air. Then, tank started growling. "Tank, buddy? What's wrong?" Aizen asked. Tank gave angel to maiko and he went in front of us. The large gorilla growled nonstop, knowing something or someone is there, standing behind us. We all turned around and saw him, the scissor bear. "Who are you?" maiko asked. The scissor bear didn't answer. "Guys...we have to run...now." I said, stuttering. "Why? Do you know him?" Aizen asked. "Know him?! He's the one that killed my best friend, pillow. We have to run! NOW!" I yelled, pushing Aizen and maiko. "What!? Wait!" Aizen said, turning around to face me.

"He killed my friend pillow! Tank can't fight him. Don't let the size of the scissors underestimate you." I growled. Then, tank roared loudly, charging at the scissor bear. "TANK, NO!" Aizen screamed. The scissor bear, with one blow, stabbed tank right in his right eye. I winced in pain as I watched the scissor bear rip out tank's eye. Tank roared in pain as he fell to the ground. I wasn't sure if he was dead or alive. "T-t...t...tank...no..." Aizen said, shaking his head as his eyes widen in horror. "RUN!" I screamed as the scissor bear started to walk to us. We all ran down the hall, angel wouldn't stop crying, I was really, really, frighten. We all split up by mistake, the darkness of the hallway split us up. I was alone. The only things I could hear was angel's crying, slowly fading away, and the sound of snipping scissors echoed the dark hallway. I curled up into a ball, hoping the scissor bear won't find me or my friends. But, it got louder and louder. Then, I got up, I needed to keep moving! I started to run down halls, hoping to find a room to hide in. Finally, I ran into a room, closing and locking the door. I started to hyperventilate,

"Calm down...calm down. Cain, you need to calm down!" I said to myself over and over again. I found a piece of large broken glass and decided to use it as a weapon. Suddenly, the doorknob shook, I tightly hung onto the glass and took a deep breath. "This is for pillow." I thought. Then, the door opened, and I yelled.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I shut my eyes and tackled someone against the wall. Suddenly,

"EYAH! Cain! What the hell are you doing!?"

I quickly opened my eyes to see Aizen, with Maiko, rubbing his head as he got up. "Oh! I'm sorry! I thought you were the scissor bear!" I said, helping him up. "It's...urgh! Alright, you it hard by the way." Aizen said. Angel stopped hiding behind aizen. "Hey, angel, feeling better?" I asked. Angel slightly nodded his head. Maiko turned and froze in horror. Aizen noticed. "What's wrong, maiko?" he asked. Maiko started trembling as her hand slowly brought up and pointed. "W-w-who's...who's th-that?" she asked, stuttering. Aizen turned to where she was looking and-

*SHING!*

"GGGGGGGGGYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Aizen screamed in pain as scissors dug into his shoulder. Maiko screamed, grabbing angel away from the murderer. The scissor bear kicked aizen off of the blades, making him crash into a bookshelves. The books fell on him, burying him.

"AIZEN!"

I yelled. Then, I snapped. Angrily, I growled and yelled,

"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT, YOU BASTARD!"

I ran to the scissor man and he couldn't react in time and I tackled him to the window, causing it to break.


	15. Chapter 15: Over

**Infected **

**Chapter 15: Over **

The scissor bear and I rolled down a hill, probably attracting the infected people, and we landed in a lake. Rain was still falling as my fur was getting wet again..I dropped the broken glass by mistake, "Damn it!" Weaponless, I searched around the lake, desperately searching for the sound of snipping noises. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my tail. I screamed and jumped out of the water. A small piece of my tail as been cut off, followed by small amounts of blood. Then, the scissor bear came out of the water, walking to me. His gray fur was wet and his red eyes were looking right at me. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" I yelled, as I began dodging the blades of scissors. Then, the scissor bear kicked my stomach, making me crash onto the tree, and with the scissors opened, he stabbed the tree bark, trapping my neck. He started laughing as he answered, "Nothing. But you DEAD!" The scissor bear slowly started to bring the scissors together, the blades touching my neck as I screamed in agony. He's going to cut my head off! What do I do!? What do I do!? Then, I slowly brought my leg up and kicked the scissor bear as hard as I could. He grunted in pain as he let go of the scissors. I coughed, feeling blood leak out of my neck. I weakly fell to the ground and started to get back up, but my stomach was met with a very strong kick, sure breaking something in my body but I didn't know what.

I coughed up blood, falling to the ground again. I started to breath heavily, watching as the scissor bear pick up his scissors and walk to me. "It's a shame really, I really wished you lasted longer." he said to me, kicking my stomach to make me roll onto my back. I opened my eyes to see the blades of scissors touching my left arm. Without warning, the scissor bear stabbed my arm, forcefully touching my bone. I screamed in pain as he ripped the scissors out. Tears are now flowing out of my eyes as I struggled to get up. The scissor bear watched me struggle to get up, but I ended up crawling with one arm to get away. The scissor bear stabbed my leg next, the left one. I screamed some more.

"NO MORE! NO MORE! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAA!"

I screamed, begging for the insane murder to stop. Then,

"CAIN!"

Aizen yelled, picking up a large tree branch and ran to the insane murder to hit him across the head. "Ai...Aizen...no!" I weakly coughed as aizen kept swinging at the scissor bear, who kept dodging his swings. "Keep! Fucking! Still!" aizen yelled, swinging with all his might. The scissor bear caught his swing with his open scissors. He closed them and cut the tree branch in half. Aizen was shocked, he ducked as the scissor bear tried stabbing him. I weakly started to get up to help aizen. "Aizen! URGH!" I grunted, falling down again. Aizen tackled the insane bear into the lake again. First, the scissor bear tried drowning aizen, and aizen kicked the scissor bear's groin to break free. Aizen tried swimming for shore, but he got pulled back by the scissor bear and cut his arm. Aizen yelled and kicked the scissor bear's face. I had to get up and help! If I don't aizen might die! Suddenly, the scissor bear screamed as a large alligator swam up and bit his shoulder. The scissor bear dropped his scissors and dragged him to the bottom of the lake. I heard aizen pant, he got up, walked to me, and checked to make sure I wasn't severely injured. Obviously, a wound in my arm and leg is pretty severe. Hurts like hell too. "Come on, buddy." aizen said, helping me up. I grunted in pain. "Aahh! Y-you could've been killed." I said, in pain. "You too." aizen said, helping me walk. Then, "Cain! Aizen!" Maiko cried, running down a hill with angel and someone else. Aizen squinted his eyes slightly and gasped. "D-d-dad?" aizen gasped. The figure stepped into the moonlight and a dark tan bear, wearing a torn shirt, walked to aizen. "Hi, son." he gently said. I got out from aizen's arm and he hugged his dad. "Where have you been!? Where!?" aizen cried, shaking him. "I found in hiding in the Teacher's Lounge. He didn't seem infected or injured." maiko answered. Aizen let go of his father and hugged maiko.

"You found him. Thank you." aizen said, blushing slightly. Maiko's face turned red as she hugged him back. Then, I saw a large figure behind aizen and maiko. It looked a lot like...

"Tank!" Aizen happily cried, running to his gorilla friend and hugged him. Tank's missing right eye is gone. But, he seemed alright. When we get home, we should wrap his eye around so he doesn't get infected. We're all together now, we gotta get home before the infected comes.


	16. Chapter 16: Joy

**Infected **

**Chapter 16: Joy **

We walked back home, wait until Linda sees Chance, Aizen's father. Excited, I knocked on the door. Linda answered it and she instantly gasped when she saw my father. "Ch-ch...chance?" she said, her hands covering her mouth in shock. Chance walked to Linda and hugged her, feeling her big belly touching his. "Hi, Linda." he said gently, giving her a kiss on the forehead. Linda burst into tears. "Let's leave them alone." aizen whispered, going upstairs, maiko following him. Angel was tired, so he slept in his bedroom for a while. Ian was wrapping tank's wounded eye with bandages we found at the school. "Who's that?" lakey asked. "That's aizen's father, chance." I answered, sitting down as Ava wrapped my injured arm, leg and tail. "Wait, I'm confused. Where did you guys go?" ian asked, confused, biting the strip of the bandage off. "W-well, it's a long story," I said, starting to explain what took place. I even mentioned that we ran into the scissor bear again, this time, an alligator killed him. Ava was shocked, but relieved that he's gone for good. "So! You're amy?" ava asked, turning to amy. Shyly, amy nodded her head yes. "Say, want to change into some new clothes? Maybe Linda has something good for you." ava added, grabbing amy's hand and wet upstairs. "Oh! U-um..." amy stuttered. The two girls ran upstairs as Thomas yelled,

"STAY FAR AWAY FROM MY ROOM! TWERPS!"

I growled at him. I do NOT like that guy one bit. Then,

"Cain!"

I turned to see shadow happily running to me and gave me a hug. "I was so worried about you!" she said, not breaking the hug one bit. I hugged her back and she noticed my injured tail wrapped up. "What happened to your tail?" shadow asked. "Well...let's just say, shadow, don't play with scissors." I said, chuckling as I pet her head until she purred happily. An hour later, everyone went to sleep. Ian started to look out of the window, he's been dozed off since we arrived here. I started to get worried about him. I put the sleeping kitten down and walked up to ian. "Hey," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Ian flinched a little. The blue-haired orange cat turned around and saw me. The only thing I noticed about ian is that his eyes are bloodshot...from crying.

"Oh...h-hey cain. What's up?" he asked, wiping tears from his eyes. "I should ask you the same thing. Why're you crying?" I asked, sitting down next to him. "Me? Crying!? How absurd! I don't cry!" ian replied, quickly getting up and trying to hide something from me. I gave him a skeptical look. "C'mon, ian. Don't lie to me." I said. Ian slowly backed away from me to the stairs. "D-d...d...don't worry about it! Everyone cries! You cry, I cry, lakey cries, everyone!" ian said, stuttering. Ian ran upstairs to a room, just before I could say anything else. I sighed, "What is wrong with that guy?" I sat down on the couch, next to lakey. Then,

"I know why ian is crying..."

Lakey replied. I quickly turned to lakey. "Oh! I thought you were asleep! Sorry, lakey..." I whispered. "It's alright, dude. I woke up 10 minutes ago," lakey said, turning to me.

"But, you wanted to know why ian is sad?"

"Yeah, I just want to see him happy for once."

"Well, before raven and rai were brought into prison, ian and I were captured first...or second, I think shadow was hiding from us. Ian had his parents and little sister with him. My mother was the only family I had...but she turned into one of those infected monsters."

"Sorry..."

"It's okay! I'm over it now."

Lakey gave me a warm smile and continued,

"Anyways, Ian's parents and his sister was with him. These dusk soldiers tried to separate his parents from ian and his sister. But, ian fought back. He kept on screaming and scratching them, yelling to let go of his family. But, with one shot from a gun, the dusk soldier tried shooting ian, But, his father took the bullet to the heart. Shocked, I stood there, paralyzed with fear. Ian's mother was next, these dusk soldiers started to brutally murder his mother right in front of ian and his sister. Ian was so frighten, his body wouldn't stop shaking. Finally, his sister was taken away from him, and she was screaming for ian to save her. But, ian was being held down by two soldiers and knocked him out..."

Lakey paused for a moment, then continued. "Honestly, I couldn't remember what happened next because they knocked me out as well." Lakey finally said. I felt bad, I guess aizen's family reminded ian of his own. "God...now I feel horrible." I said, lying down. "Don't worry buddy! Ian's my best pal! He'll be okay tomorrow." lakey replied, resting his red cap on a table near by and lied down on the arm of the chair. "Well...g'night cain." lakey said, yawning. "Night..." I said back, closing my eyes. Just as soon as I did that, a loud snore was coming from the corner of the living room. My eyes widen as Thomas, mean grandpa, started to snore loudly. I could NOT sleep that night, so I stuffed my ears with two pillows, but that didn't work.


	17. Chapter 17: Capture

**Infected **

**Chapter 17: Capture**

Finally, with the huge jerk grandpa asleep, I can finally get some sleep, even though it's only 3am in the morning. Just when I closed my eyes,

*Kaboom!*

I screamed, falling off the couch, so did lakey. "Oh come on!" I angrily growled, sitting up.

*KABOOM!*

An even bigger and louder explosion came from outside. Everyone from upstairs ran down the steps and saw what was happening. "What's going on!?" Ava cried. Aizen looked out of the window and gasped. "Mom! They're back!" he cried. Linda gasped, "Oh no..." When I was about to ask who was back, aizen let out a loud gasp. He quickly grabbed angel and screamed,

**"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" **

Lakey grabbed shadow and dived to the ground. Ava grabbed ryan, chance grabbed linda, ian grabbed maiko, and I took cover and we dived to the ground. Tank grabbed Thomas, who yelled, hitting tank's head with his cane,

"Put me down you flee biting, overlarge, stupid monkey!"

Tank protected Thomas and...

***KABOOM!***

The explosion was so strong, that debris of the house began falling. I braced myself as the debris fell on us. The only thing I heard was ringing in my ears. My body was being weighed down by the heavy debris as I struggled to get out from the pile of debris. Finally, with one last push, I moved the debris off of me. I gasped, looked around, the safe house...is gone. "Guys!? Everyone!?" I called. Then, I saw a pile of debris move and aizen popped out, along with a crying little brother. "Aizen!" I called, relieved. Soon, tank, linda, chance, ian, lakey, shadow, maiko, and Thomas...damn it...popped out of the debris. But, I realized who didn't come out yet...ava and ryan. "RYAN! AVA!" I screamed. Then, debris popped out, and ryan popped out. "Ryan! Are you-" I asked, relieved. But then, I realized ryan was covered in...blood. I heard soft crying coming from him. Slowly, I approached him. "Ryan...?" I said, softly. Then, I gasped. "No...please god no..." I said, tears welling up. Ava was there, lying in her own blood. Ryan was sobbing, his big sister is dead, the love of my life is dead! Ava's light purple eyes were lifeless and her light pink fur was covered in blood. I started to sob. "Who did this!? WHO!? WHY!?" I sobbed, grabbing ava and sobbed into her chest. "Please, say something! ANYTHING! Oh god, ava why!? Ava, sweetie please!" I sobbed, begging. Then, I felt a hand land on my head. I turned around and saw aizen. I couldn't help it, I sobbed uncontrollably. Then,

"Greetings. So sorry to wake you up this early."

We all turned around and saw a group of...dusk soldiers holding strange weapons. "You...you..." I said, growling. I got up and started to walk to the group. "You...killed...my girlfriend! I won't forgive you for that!" I yelled, tears still flowing out of my eyes. "Oh? I was going to tell all my soldiers to kill all of you, but now I see you...cain. I want **revenge**." a very familiar voice said. My eyes widen in horror. The scissor bear is still alive. There were stitches on his chest where the alligator attacked him. How? HOW could he survive that?! The scissor man snapped his fingers and dusk soldiers ran to us, chains in hands. Ryan screamed for his sister as he was tied up and being dragged into the truck. Tank angrily roared loudly, punching away dusk soldiers that got near us. Suddenly, the infected were attracted to the explosions and came to the dusk soldiers. Then, chance took out his toolbox, pulled out a large axe and threw it at an infected that was near Grandpa Thomas. "You almost hit me! You stupid floosy!" he yelled, angrily. "I'll take that as a thank you!" chance yelled. Suddenly, a dusk soldier was aiming his gun directly at me, while I was distracted protecting Shadow and Angel. Ian noticed and time seemed to slow down as the gun fired. I looked to see the bullet flying to my stomach.

"NOOO!"

Ian jumped in front of me and got shot instead. "IAN!" Lakey screamed. Ian lied there, coughing. "Ian! NO!" I yelled, running to his aid. "Wh-why!? WHY!?" I said, over and over again, trying to help him. "Cain...*Cough*...R-run..." ian weakly said, closing his eyes. Ian stopped breathing and the only movement I saw was tears streaming out of his eyes. Tears were now pouring out of my eyes. "No...please ian...no..." I said, crying, desperately searching for Ian's pulse. No movement. Then, I heard a loud painful roar behind me. I turned to see...tank. Tank was now being brutality shot by dusk soldiers and being bitten by infected. I heard aizen scream tank's name. Then, someone grabbed me by the bandana, it was a dusk soldier. My hands were being tied by chains and soon, everyone was being thrown into the back of the trucks. I was completely devastated, Ava is gone, ian, and tank. Ian is lakey's best friend so I know how he feels. Tank is like aizen's partner so he must be heartbroken. And ava...oh ava why?! Ryan is alone, but he's not alone with friends on his side. But, where are they taking us? Back to Happy Tree Town? Back to the prison?


	18. Chapter 18: Evil Safe House

**Infected said. **

**Chapter 18: Evil Safe House **

We didn't go back to the old prison, we travel out of Happy Tree Town. Shadow stayed close to me. Everyone was hand cuffed, not saying a word. Maiko leaned on Aizen and angel was near his big brother, Linda and Chance stayed together, Lakey comforted Ryan. It was complete silence. Until Thomas, the old bear, broke it. "This is bull to the shit! It's all the fox's fault!" he yelled. "Hey! Grandpa, don't blame it on Cain!" aizen said. "Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't blame it on blue bastard over there," Thomas growled. "I should blame it on YOU! Aizen!" "Why me?!"

"You're the one who saved and found them in the first place! You and your friends, hairy gorilla and dumbass girlfriend!"

"I-I'm not his girlfriend!"

"Why can't you accept the fact that nobody in this world can keep themselves safe forever!?"

"C-can I say something?"

"NO! Stay out of this, Lakey!"

"Getting angry and blaming it on someone isn't going to hide your fear, grandpa!"

"Who the hell said I'm scared!?"

"**EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!**"

I screamed, shutting everyone up. "Listen, ARGUING isn't going to hide fear. Nothing can. Not even sorrow. Everyone gets scared. I-I...I'm scared. Linda...I definitely know you're scared. Your daughter...she might come. But, hopefully, that won't happen," I started to say. "Our only hope right now...is to stick together and survive for as long as we can."

*Silence*

"Cain's right. We can't blame it on anyone else. It's no one's fault." lakey added. Maiko wiped her tears, "Cain?" she said. I turned to her. "Why...why do you stay strong when everyone is scared?" she asked. I looked down. "To be honest, I really don't know. But we should all be brave at times like this." I answered, petting shadow's fur. I heard shadow purr. Angel crawled to his brother and whispered in his ear. Aizen's eyes widen, "Wh-what? Can't you...Y'know...hold it?" aizen asked, worried. "What's wrong?" lakey asked. Aizen sighed and answered, "Angel...he needs to...go to the bathroom." Linda gasped. "On no...I-I told you not to drink so much water when you go to bed!" she said. Angel hid his face in his blue winter hat. "Can he hold it?" Chance asked. Angel nodded. "Good." I sighed in relief. Suddenly, the truck came to a stop. It was silent, until the driver door opened and closed, the truck door was open and one of the dusk soldiers stood in front of us, shotgun in arm. "Get up, now." he growled. We all stood up and started walking. I heard ryan whisper,

"Cain? I-I...I miss Ava."

"Me too, ryan. Me too."

I whispered back, holding in tears. "Get in your cells." another dusk soldier said. I walked in with aizen in a jail cell. Aizen refused to be separated with his dad, angel, mom, and maiko. "LET ME GO! I **NEED **TO STAY WITH THEM! MOMMY! MAIKO!" Aizen screamed, struggling to get out of the dusk soldier's grip. Chance yelled at his son for him to stop fighting and do what they say. "DAD! NO! WE JUST REUNITED! I DON'T WANT TO SEPARATED!" Aizen screamed, biting a dusk soldier's ear. He got punched in the stomach and face. Maiko screamed in horror, she ran to help aizen, but another dusk soldier grabbed her to lock her in a jail cell. "NO! Aizen! CAIN! HELP HIM! PLEASE!" maiko screamed. Suddenly,

"Let him be."

A Dusk soldier stopped punching aizen. I turned and saw the scissor bear. "Dr. Petro!" one of them said. "Dr...Petro?" I thought. Dr. Petro, a.k.a scissor bear, walked to aizen. Aizen panted, blood pouring from his nose. "Throw him in there." Dr. Petro said, grabbing aizen's arm and dragged him in a cell with Maiko. Aizen snapped, he bit down hard on his hand. Dr. Petro screamed, kicking aizen's stomach and threw him in a cell with maiko. "Stupid bastard!" he swore, throwing me in a empty cell and locked it. "But oh well, you guys will be dead anyway tomorrow," Dr. Petro, evilly smirked, facing aizen and finished his sentence. "One of you." He left with his dusk soldiers and shut the lights in the hallway. We all stayed silent. I heard lakey say,

"How are we going to escape this one?"

I hid my face with my hands, that are stained with my girlfriend's blood and whimpered,

"We can't."


	19. Chapter 19: The Causalities

**Infected **

**Chapter 19: The** **Causalities **

_I was standing in a meadow full of flowers. The sky was blue and the summer breeze was blowing in my face. "What happened?" I asked myself, looking around. Then,_

_"Cain! Cain, honey!"_

_A familiar voice called. My ears perked up, I turned around and there she was. My mother was standing on top a small hill, waving to me. Tears welled up in my eyes as I yelled, _

_"MOMMY!"_

_I started to run to her. I leaped into the air and landed in her arms. "M-mom...I-I missed you so much!" I sobbed, burying my face into her stomach. "Hush now, sweetie. It's over. We're all here now." mom gently said, running her hand on my head. I looked up at her, "W-we?" Mom smiled at me and nodded, she turned around and pointed who was behind her. I looked behind her and I gasped. Pillow, Alex, Ava, Tank, and Ian was there. "E-everyone?" I said. Pillow nodded. "Yep! How's it going buddy?!" pillow replied. "I want to say thank you, cain. For escaping that hellish prison together as a team." ian added. "You're a brave fox and I'm extremely grateful to know you." Alex joined in. Tank gave me a nudge with his large hand. Ava walked to me and gave me a hug and a kiss. I couldn't hold in tears, they dropped onto the ground. "I-I don't know what just happen...but I'm really happy that you guys are here with me." I replied, wiping tears away. Then, pillow and alex looked at each other. _

_ "We're not really here, cain. It's just a dream." pillow replied. I nodded my head, "I know, a dream that feels so real." "Yes but, we came here to tell you something..." mom said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Destroy him. That wretched scientist he calls himself." _

_"Take good care of Aizen for tank." _

_"Make sure Lakey doesn't do anything retarded." _

_"Watch over Ryan and shadow." _

_"Fall in love again, for me. We'll never see each other again, so this is my request to you, cain." _

_I looked down. I can do all that, except the falling in love again thing. Suddenly, just when I was going to say something, everyone disintegrated and the peaceful meadow turned into a red skied, fiery, ashy place. A voice yelled, startling me, _

_"**WAKE UP!**" _

_... _

I gasped, sitting up on bed. A dusk soldier grabbed my bandana and dragged me. "ACK! AAHH!" I chocked. "Get...the fuck...off of me!" I yelled, struggling to get out of the grip. I was thrown into a room full of more dusk soldiers. They started to chain me against a wall and quickly leave the room. "Wh-wh-what the HELL!?" I screamed. Then, I noticed someone was next to me. I turned and saw the shivering light tan bear. "A-aizen?" I said. Aizen turned to me. "Cain...what're they going to do to us?" he asked. I shrugged. "Why us? Why?!" aizen added. "Maybe it's because we're the only two in the group who fought Dr. Petro..." I answered.

*Silence*

"Is everyone alright?" I asked. Aizen shrugged, "No matter how many times I call my mom, she wouldn't respond. I'm worried about her." Aizen started whimpering. "I hope the baby didn't come..." he said. I placed my tail around him, the only thing I can move. "It's okay, aizen. She's probably sleeping like the most of us." I said to him. Aizen calmed down and sighed. "Y-yeah...that must be it." aizen replied. Then, the door opened and Dr. Petro walked in. "Good evening, boys." he said with an evil smirk. I growled at him, "What the hell do you want from us!?" "Like I said, cain. I want revenge. Payback," Dr. Petro continued.

"Your friend, Aizen, may have beat me back at the lake, but I go for winning. I won't quit until you BOTH suffered...as much as I did. Now, starting with the fox, because I met him first."

I gulped, what is this bastard doing?! Dr. Petro snapped his fingers, and screaming was heard in the hallway. It got louder and louder until a dusk soldier came in the room, with a screaming and quiet gray and white cat. "Shadow!" I yelled. Shadow heard me, she turned and cried,

"Cain!"

"You're pretty close to this feline girl, are you?"

Dr. Petro said, petting shadow's head, making her whimper. I growled, trying to get out of the chains that held me to the wall. "G-get the fuck away from her!" "I'll take that as answer. Sergeant Twitch, bring it in." Dr. Petro said, turning to a dusk soldier. He nodded, ran out of the room and came back with a small jar. Inside of it was a long legged spider, with a red thorax. I watched as Dr. Petro pulled it out. Shadow started to cry, watching as Dr. Petro place the insect on her arm. Shadow continued to whimper,

"P-p-please...get it off of me! Get it off of-OWW!"

Shadow cried out in pain as the spider bit her. "SHADOW!" I screamed. The spider climbed off of shadow and it mysteriously died. Dr. Petro stepped on it and dusk soldiers tied shadow up to a wall. "Watch and learn." Dr. Petro said, watching shadow's face turn pale. "Sh-sh...shadow?" I called out to her. Shadow growled, her eyes opened as her eyes glowed deviously red. She turned into an Infected. I gasped, my heart stopped. "N-no...no..." I said to myself over and over again. Dr. Petro laughed as he faced Aizen. "Your turn." Aizen flinched, watching a dusk soldier bring in his father.

"DADDY!"

Aizen screamed. "Aizen?! Cain!? What's happening?!" chance yelled. Dr. Petro pulled out the same spider and placed it on chance. Chance glared at him and blew the spider off and stepped on it. "Is that all you got?" chance growled. "Smart. Smart for a stupid bear." Dr. Petro smirked. Chance looked at him, puzzled. Suddenly, chance cried out in pain. Aizen watched as the spider bit the bottom of chance's foot. "I-it didn't die?!" he gasped. "What the fuck was tha...tha..." chance said, his face turned pale as well. He was chained onto the wall with Infected Shadow and he turned as well. Aizen froze, he didn't say anything. The torture continued, Ryan turned, Lakey turned, Thomas turned, aizen's mother turned, Next was Maiko. "N-no! Please, anything but her!" aizen begged. Maiko was trembling. "PLEASE! NOT HER! PLEASE!" aizen screamed. Dr. Petro held onto the spider. "Fine, fine. I'll let her say her last words. So listen carefully, because she's not going to repeat herself." he said. The dusk soldiers let go of maiko. "Go! GO, maiko! RUN! Run while you still can!" aizen yelled. Aizen yelled. Maiko shook her head. "I can't. Even if I do, they'll still chase after me...you know that aizen." maiko whimpered.

Aizen's tears dripped onto the floor. "Please...don't infect her..." he begged. Dusk soldiers chained maiko to the wall. Dr. Petro placed the spider onto maiko's arm as she continued. "Aizen...I've been wanting to tell you this for a long time-OUCH!" maiko said, then screamed when the infected spider bit her and died. Aizen watched in horror. "I-I...I...I love you...aizen...survive...for as long as...you can..." maiko said, her face turning pale an her once green eyes turning red. "M-maiko...I...*Sniff* love you too...so much..." aizen said to her as maiko turned into an infected. Aizen began sobbing, his eyes are already bloodshot. Last is Angel, his quiet little brother. "Last one, sir." one dusk soldier said. Angel was brought in, his blue winter cap is dirty and blood-stained. "A-aizen?" I said as the spider was taken out of the jar. "Let's try a new spot, shall we?" Dr. Petro said, placing the infected-maker spider on angel's nose. Angel didn't tremble in fear, he stared at the spider. Dr. Petro stooped down and looked at angel. "You're one of the first survivors who aren't afraid of spiders! Brave little boy aren't you-" Dr petro laughed. Suddenly, angel took a deep breath and blew on the spider. Aizen watched, surprised. Dr. Petro screamed as the spider bit his eye. "AHH! Son of a!" he screamed. Dusk soldiers let go of angel by mistake and with one shove, angel pushed the dusk soldiers into our infected friends. "AAHH! MY EYE!" Dr. Petro screamed. "Come on, buddy! Let us out!" Aizen called. Angel ran to aizen and untied his chains. Angel did the same to me as we all started to head into the hallway. We kept running, desperately searching for the exit. Then, I saw a sign that said,

EXIT

"There it is! Come on!" I yelled, bursting through the doors as we escaped the evil safe house, only the three of us.


	20. Chapter 20: Lost And Found

**Infected **

**Chapter 20: Lost And Found **

It's getting cold. We walked onto the forest path. I looked up into the sky, the sky was completely gray and saw small drops of snow falling from the sky. I breathed heavily, seeing my breath. I placed my hands on my arms and asked, "WH-wh-where are w-w-we g-going?" Aizen shrugged, shivering as well as he carried his freezing brother. "S-s-s-somewhere far away from h-h-here." Aizen answered. We kept walking, carefully avoiding infected people. A few moments later, I heard a soft thud behind me. I turned and saw aizen, with his knees on the ground. "Aizen?!" I called to him, still shivering. I walked up to him and held a hand out to him. "Are you able to k-keep going?" I asked. Aizen nodded, grabbing my hand to help him up. I took off my bandana and placed it around aizen's neck. "What are you doing?" aizen asked. "Helping y-you." I shivered, grabbing his arm to help him walk. I feel naked without my bandana, but I'll be okay, I hope. "We need to find shelter...I-if we don't...we'll freeze to death." I said. "C-cain?" aizen replied. I turned to him. "Th-thanks." he said. "D-don't thank me yet." I said back to him. We kept walking, angel following us. An hour later, I felt dizzy and weak. I let go of aizen because he can walk on his own. But, I felt myself drifting as I collapsed.

**Aizen's POV **

*THUD!*

I heard a thud from behind me. I turned and saw the light blue fox, on the ground. "Oh no, cain!" I cried, running to him as I checked if he had a pulse. I sighed in relief, he did. "He must've used up all of his energy. We need shelter now." I said to my little brother. Angel looked down at cain. He took off his hat and put it on cain's head. "Thanks bro." I said, petting his head. I picked up cain over my shoulder and we continued. It seemed like the more we walked, the colder it got. The wind blew, making me stop for a moment. Before I knew it, it was getting dizzy for me too. No, I can't pass out! I shook my head, encouraging angel to keep moving. 5 minutes later, angel weakly fell to the ground, he passed out as well. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" I said, turning around to fetch my unconscious brother. The snow fell heavier. Angel was barely breathing. "Cain, cain please you gotta wake up! I can't pick up two people at once!" I begged, shaking the light blue and white fox. Cain didn't move. I started to panic. I'm the only one standing. If only tank was here, he can lift them both without a problem. But, he's gone. I shivered from the cold. I had to try to pick them up both. I picked up angel first and dragged cain by his arm. It didn't help at all, cain grunted in pain. I had to do something else...but what? Soon, when that strong wind hit me in the face, I fell on my knees, accidentally dropping angel. I tried so hard not to pass out. "I gotta...stay awake...I-I...gotta...stay..." I fell on my face. My vision was blurry as the snow blinded my eye sight. I noticed a figure walking towards us. Was it an infected? I didn't know, I hope it isn't. When the figure came close enough, it first went to cain. It touched his chest and nodded. He went to angel and did the same thing. He went to me and touched my wrist. It nodded, I couldn't remember what happened next because I blacked out from the cold.


	21. Chapter 21: Saved

**Infected **

**Chapter 21: Saved **

**Cain's POV**

"Hey, wake up!"

"Mmmm..Mmmm..."

"Wake up, cain!"

"Urgh...aahh..."

I slowly opened my eyes and it was blurry. I recognized aizen's voice in front of me. I grunted some more, and hot water was splashed onto my face. I covered my eyes and face. "WHAT THE HELL!? AAHHH!" I screamed. "Clarity! What the hell!?" aizen yelled. "S-sorry! I really wanted do it!" a voice said. I managed to open one eye and my vision cleared. "I told you he's not bitten!" aizen yelled at a light orange fox. She started laughing. "I'm sorry! I couldn't help it!" she laughed. My vision finally cleared and I could see again. We where in a clean bedroom. I looked at the cracking up fox. She has black hair, with a light blue strand in the front. She has brown eyes like me, filled with tears from laughing. She wore a white shirt and black ripped shorts. I glared at her, and she shrugged her shoulder. "Don't look at me like that! Haha! You're going to make me cry!" clarity said, sarcastically. I continued to glare at her and aizen placed his hand on my head. "Well...your fever is gone. This is clarity." aizen said. "Wait, I had a fever?" I asked, getting up. Aizen nodded, "You were out for two days. I thought you were dead!" I looked at myself, I felt cold and my head hurts a little. "Where are we?" I asked. "Well. This is clarity's house. It has a gate and guard dogs! Her cousin brought us here and-" aizen explained. "Whoa, whoa, whoa wait...guard dogs!?" I asked, interrupting aizen. "I know right? I was surprised too." aizen replied. "They're outside. Look." Clarity replied, pointing the window. I walked to the window and saw 5 large dogs. They're 3 pitbulls and 2 German shepherds. I watched in amazement as they fought and killed Infected trying to get through the gate. I was speechless. "Yep! This is my house!" clarity replied, leaning against the wall. "Where's your cousin?" I asked. "He went out to find more survivors. It's snowing outside! He could find anybody!" she answered. Then, angel came in. He gasped in relief as he ran to me and hugged me tightly. "Oof!" I grunted. "Angel was worried about you. He wouldn't leave your side when you were asleep." aizen said, smiling. "I-is that true?" I asked, smiling. Aizen nodded, smiling as he hugged me again. "Clarity...thanks. For saving us." I replied, smiling. Clarity looked away from me. "Yeah, yeah. No problem." she said. Then, suddenly,

"CLARITY! OPEN THE GATE!"

Clarity's ears perked up and ran out of the room. Angel got off of me and followed aizen to run down the hall. I followed them until we exited the front door. I stopped running and saw a balcony near the stairs. I ran on it and my eyes widen. A brown bear was carrying a orange and white cat. He was running towards the house, followed by a horde of infected running after him. "LEO!" clarity screamed. Clarity pulled down a lever and the front gate slowly opened. The brown bear jumped through the gate, turned around, and closed the gate back. Infected tried getting through and tried biting their way through the bars. Leo panted. "Don't worry, everyone, they can't get in." he replied, bringing in the orange cat. "Is she alright?" clarity asked. Leo nodded, "Yeah. She just passed out from hunger and cold. You'll never believe what she has though." Leo showed us the orange cat and what she has in her arms. I instantly gasped as she held a red baby blanket, cradled in her arms. "Oh my gosh." clarity gasped. "Thank god it's not injured...Aizen?" leo said. "Y-yes, sir!?" aizen quickly said. The brown bear chuckled and replied, "You can call me Leo. Can you get some hot water please?" Aizen nodded and ran to the kitchen. Leo placed the orange cat where I was sleeping. "Cain, right?" Leo said to me. I nodded. "I want you to watch tis cat. If she does anything, tell us immediately, okay?" leo said to me. "Sure...okay." I said. I looked at the orange and white cat, the baby still cradled in her arms. Angel looked at leo and asked,

"Can I play with the dogs?"

"Sorry, not now. Maybe later when we clear the backyard."

"Okay!"

Clarity, angel, and leo left the room. I sighed, looking at the unconscious orange and white cat. I then heard her mumble something. I got a little closer to her and heard her say,

"I...I...promise to...protect...Blaze..."

I looked at her and tears were leaking out of her closed eyes. Poor her, whatever she been through, I feel bad for her. I sat down on a chair near the bed and waited for the cat to wake up.


	22. Chapter 22: Trust

**Infected **

**Chapter 23: Trust**

I woke up to the sound of groaning. I quickly snapped out of my drowsiness and faced the orange and white cat. The baby started making whimpers as it started to cry. "Oh no." I thought as I was about to pick up the baby and comfort it, until the orange and white cat got up and scratched me across my face. I screamed. "Get away from my brother, you monster!" she screamed, opening her eyes. Her eyes are golden yellow and she hissed at me like an angry cat. I placed my hand on my left cheek and cried, "Calm down! I wasn't going to hurt hi-" I gasped as I dodged an incoming chair hurling towards my face. "I SAID STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" She yelled. The baby kitten started crying as I fully saw the baby kitten. He's an orange kitten with bright green eyes. He has a cut across his torso. He was crying loudly. The orange cat continued to hiss at me. "H-hey! Your brother is cry-" I said to her. "GET AWAY FROM US!" She yelled, lunging at me. She scratched my torso and bit my shoulder. I screamed and shivered as I felt her teeth sinking into my fur.

*Silence*

"H-hey...calm down...no one's going to hurt you...I promise..."

I said, as gently and calmly as I could. The orange and white cat opened her eyes and they turned green. She started shivered in my lap and whimpered. "I-I..I...sowwy..." she said into my shoulder. "It's okay just-Aahh! Stop biting me." I said in pain. The orange cat slowly released my shoulder and looked deeply into my eyes. Her baby brother stopped crying and started to release hiccups. "L-listen...I need you to trust me," I said, pushing the cat off of me. "Your brother...he's scratched. He may get infected. We gotta fix him." "P-promise me you won't hurt him?" she replied, whimpering. I gave her my confident smile and said, "Wasn't planning to." The orange cat got off of me and I walked to her hiccupping baby brother. Luckily, I still have bandages I found when we first escaped the Scissor guy's prison. I took some and wrapped it around the orange kitten's torso. I used my teeth to cut the bandages and finished. "Finished." I said to her. The orange cat stared at me. She then burst into tears. "I-I-I don't know what to say! Thank you so much! I'm really sorry for attacking you! I got scared! I got angry! I got-" she apologized. "It's okay-OW!" I said, feeling my shoulder sting. I took out the bandages and wrapped my shoulder wound. "I'm sorry, I scratched you." the cat said again. "It's fine...what's your name?" I asked her. "Flare." she answered. "I'm cain." I replied, smiling. Flare smiled back, but faded as she started to struggle to stand up. "Hey? Are you-WHOA!" I asked, and suddenly held out my arms as she fell into them. I heard a growl from her stomach. "That's right...she collapsed from hunger." I thought as I placed her back on bed. I sighed, rubbing my bloody cheeks. Then, I heard Flare mumble,

"C-cain...I...I trust cain..."

With that, she fell asleep. I found myself smiling as I placed blankets on Flare and her baby brother. My eyes widen as I remembered to tell leo what happened just now.

"Damn it."

* * *

**It feels great to be back! Sorry if I hadn't published any chapters in a while. My laptop was acting up and my mom won't leave me alone about studying for my exam I have tomorrow. Thx for reading and don't forget to review! :D**


	23. Chapter 23: Different Similarities

**Infected**

**Chapter 23: Different Similarities**

After I told Leo what happened the next morning, he told me to take it easy with survivors. He told me if Flare was infected and attacked me like she did last night, I would've been infected a long time ago. I understood him and brought food for flare and her little brother. When I knocked on the door, flare replied with a soft,

"Come in..."

and walked in the room. I saw flare rocking the baby kitten back and forth. "Hey, Flare." I said to her. "Uh...hi, cain." she replied. I gave her a tray of food. "Here. I brought this for you." Flare looked down at her food and then to her baby brother. "Here blaze, you need to eat too." Flare said, using her claws to peel the skin of her apple and gave a piece to him. Blaze smiled and bite the apple. "So um...what happened to you?" I asked flare. Flare froze, slowly biting her apple and looked at me. "I-if you don't mind me asking." I added. Flare shook her head and told me what happened to her.

Flare looked at blaze and stroked his head. She sighed and replied,

"I...really don't want to talk about it..."

I didn't say anything else. So, I decided to say, "Y'know, flare. I realize something about you." Flare faced me again. "Whenever you get angry, your eyes turn yellow. What's that about?" I asked her. Flare looked down and replied,

"I...I...I have PTSD."

My eyes widen, I learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in school. Flare must've killed many infected to protect herself and her brother, Blaze. "You need to be careful around me, Cain. You'll never know when I'll strike." Flare added. I nodded. "Okay..."

*Silence again*

"What about you?"

Flare asked, looking at me. "Hm?" I questioned. "What happened to you before this all stared?" flare asked again. I looked down, remembering the deaths that were caused in front of me. "I used to live in Happy Tree Town...with my mom and her boyfriend, Alex," I started.

"Boyfriend?"

"I never knew my dad. He left my mom when she had me."

"Oh...sorry."

"It's alright. I never really had any friends, until I met this friendly brown chubby bear named Pillow."

"Pillow?"

"He's extremely soft."

"Ah..."

"When this hell started, I lost my mom and alex. Pillow and I recently teamed up with these survivors named Ava and her little brother Ryan."

"Little brother?"

"He's a bit older than blaze."

"Oh...okay. What happened to them?"

I paused, looking down as Ava's lifeless purple eyes flashed into my mind. The sight of ryan turning into an infected fox in front of me because of some infected spider. Tears welled up and I answered Flare,

"The same thing how my close friends died...turned into those things..."

Flare looked at me. "Sorry...I asked." I smiled, ruffling her hair and I replied,

"Don't worry about it!"

Suddenly, just when I was going to get up,

"Hey, guys!"

I quickly looked at the door and aizen walked in with angel. "Cain!" angel cried, running to me and hugged me. "Oof! Wow, you're getting big!" I grunted. "Cain, Leo and Clarity said that they want to see you." aizen replied. I looked at him, confused. "Why?" I asked. Aizen shrugged. "Dunno." he said. I got up and walked downstairs. I saw leo and clarity in the living room, with bags on the table. "You needed me?" I asked. Leo nodded, he tossed me a bag and said, "Here."

I caught it and was instantly being weighed down by heavy material inside the bag. I fell on the floor. "UGH! WH-what the hell?!" I said, trying to lift up the heavy bag. Clarity laughed, picking up the bag off of me and replied,

"Wow, you're weak!"

I glared at her again. "Okay, cain. I want you to do something for me." leo said. I nodded my head as I replied,

"Sure."

"There's a large building down this forest path. It's surrounded by gates. Hopefully there's food and water inside of it. But be careful, there may be some survivors that have lost their minds. Meaning, they'll attack you when they see you. In the meantime, I'll go check on the cats I brought in yesterday."

"*Gulp* O-okay."

"One more thing cain,"

"Yeah?"

"Take Clarity with you."

"What!?"

A hard smack slapped my back. "OW!" I cried. Clarity put her arm around me and replied, "Yup! Just you and me! On a mission together! A perfect opportunity to get to know each other!" Clarity's spunky attitude was really hard for me to know if she's really scared or serious about this. I sighed, "Yeah...sure...whatever." The lighter blue fox grinned at me and headed out to the door. "See ya, leo!" clarity said. I started following her, outside when the snow finally stopped.


	24. Chapter 24: Getting Along

**Infected **

**Chapter 24: Getting Along **

Clarity handed me a jacket and replied, "It's cold. You might want to use this." I took the dark blue jacket and said,

"Thanks..."

Clarity started to lead the way and I struggled to catch up with her. "H-hey! Slow down!" I called. Clarity slowed down a little and grinned at me. "What's the matter? Bag too heavy for you?" she asked. "YES! What's in here!?" I yelled. "Hmm...a first aid kit and a gun." clarity answered. " A WHAT!?" I cried, quickly taking off the bag and opened it. There was a large first aid kit box and a gun. "Uh...uh...um..." I said, speechless. "What? Lemme guess, you have no clue how to shoot a gun." clarity asked, smirking. "Hell to the fuck yes I don't!" I replied, zipping the bag closed and put it back on my back. "Eh. Maybe later I'll teach you how to shoot a gun." clarity replied, stopping to wait for me as we climbed a hill. Finally, I reached the top, panting. "Are we...there yet?" I asked. "Almost. Look there." clarity answered, pointing to a building, surrounded by metal gates. We continued to make our way to the building. It was a LONG FUCKING WALK, but we finally made it soon after. "Finally-" I panted. "Shhh!" clarity whispered, her ears perking up. I heard talking from behind the wall. "What're they talking...about?" I asked, still panting. Clarity didn't answer. I could tell she was thinking of a plan. "What do we do? They'll attack us if they see us!" I replied, whispering. "Well, lucky for us, I got a plan!" clarity said to me. I smiled at her.

"But it's extremely risky."

Clarity added. My smile faded, I HATE risky plans.

...

"No. No way! I'm not doing this!" I said to clarity. "You have to! It's literally the only plan I have! They have food and water in that house. I'm hungry!" clarity said to me as we arrived at the front gate, still keeping our voices down. "I'm hungry too but, I don't wanna...w-wanna..." I said, pausing. "It's the only way they'll let us in, I'm told." Clarity smirked, banging on the gate. "But I don't wanna fight y-" I replied as the gates slowly opened. Suddenly, without warning, clarity brought her leg up and kicked me in my groin. My eyes widen, my ears and tail went down as I fell on my knees and fell on the ground. The gates opened and wolves dressed in black came to us, with guns. "Who's there!?" they angrily asked. "Sorry, my stupid friend here thought it was funny to knock and ditch. But, I taught him a lesson!" clarity replied. I let out a loud cry, "YOU KICKED ME IN THE-"

"Where did you come from?"

One wolf asked. "Um...EmberLake Plains. We came here for vacation before this all started. Luckily, we m-managed to survive!" clarity answered. I rolled on the ground. "Owww..." I hissed in pain. "Shake it off, you baby!" clarity growled at me. The wolves started laughing. "HAHAHAHA! Ahh...you guys are cool, a couple of kids like you shouldn't be able to wander in the forest, come on in." the other wolf said, winking at Clarity. I heard clarity shiver as she helped me up. "Come on you baby." she said. "M-my grooiinnn..." I moaned in pain. Clarity and I followed the wolves inside the gas station. I had the opportunity to look around. On the outside of the gas station was wolves shooting at hand-made dummies. I felt better a little as I caught up with Clarity. I angrily looked at her, whispering in her ear, and growled,

"I'm going to get you back, Clarity..."

Clarity grinned whispering back to me, "I'll take that as a Great Idea." I rolled my eyes as we walked in a room like office. The strong smell of cigarettes. "Hey boss? We found these two outside." one wolf said. The chair slowly turned to us and a black wolf, wearing a cheetah like robe looked at us, smoking a large cigarette. "Oh?" he replied. "What are your names?" "Well, my name is-" I answered back. "Albert." clarity interrupted me.

"Albert?!"

"Albert and...?"

"I'm-"

"Jessie."

"Jessie!"

"Jessie?"

I face palmed. Clarity seemed satisfied with her fake name, but I'm not. My DAD'S name is Albert! "Okay, Albert...Jessie...how old are you two?" the boss asked. "I-I'm 17." I replied. "16." Clarity replied. The boss waved his hand at the two wolfs behind me and clarity, signaling them to leave. The left, the boss got up, and walked in circles around me and clarity. He started asking us questions that had nothing to do with our survival.

"Where are your parents?"

"Dead."

"Are you being...followed?"

"Meaning?"

"Are you being chased by some killer or something?"

"N-no..."

"Are you two dating?"

Clarity and I looked at one another. Just when I was going to say anything, Clarity gasped and yelped. She back away from the boss as he touched her rear end. "WHAT THE HELL!?" she growled. He smirked at her. I stepped in front of Clarity and replied, "We just need some place to stay the night." The boss looked at me and asks,

"For how long?"

"Hmm... until tomorrow?"

"*Sigh*...Okay. You two stay for one night only and leave, got it?"

"Sure...whatever."

"Good, now get out."

I grabbed clarity's hand, who was glaring at the black wolf, and exited the room. "Damn. Talk about sexual harassment." Clarity growled. "Albert...Albert! Out of all the names why Albert!?" I asked. "Because that's my favorite name.~" Clarity answered, smiling. "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?" I yelled at her. "Nope! Kidding!~" clarity replied laughing. I sighed again. "You're so annoying." I said to her, walking away. "I know. It's a working progress." clarity said to me, following me. Hours later, the wolves let us sleep on mattress in the basement of the gas station. I was sound asleep, until clarity woke me up. "Hey! Psst! Cain!" clarity whispered. "What? What? What!?" I whispered back. "We gotta go get some stuff, alright? Got your bag?" she replied. I yawned, nodding my head as I got up. "S-sure yeah..." I yawned, sleepy. I woke myself up and followed clarity to where they keep their food, in the kitchen. I opened the door and clarity took my bag. "Hey-" I said. Suddenly, my mouth was met with a fresh muffin. Clarity shut me up by stuffing a small muffin in my mouth.

"Shhh! I'll pack as many stuff as I can, you keep watch." clarity said. I nodded, feeling better and wide awake now that I've eaten something sweet. I kept watch, hoping no body comes. Finally, 10 minutes later, clarity finished. "There! Done." she said, tossing my bag back. I caught it, it was lighter this time. "What? The gun is gone, it's in my bag." Clarity said to me, smiling. I sighed at her. Just when we where going to leave, I heard footsteps approaching the kitchen door. My heart started racing. "Oh no. What do we do, clarity?!" I asked her. She shrugged, "I'm out of ideas." Then, I had a crazy idea that it just might work. I grabbed clarity and slammed her against the wall. "Hey! What're-" clarity whispered. I put my hands on her face, blushed heavily, shut my eyes, and kissed her. Clarity's eyes widen in shock as the kitchen door opened. "Oops! Sorry, I'll leave you two alone." a wolf said, seeing me making out with clarity. I pulled away as he shut the door.

*Silence*

I looked away from clarity and said, "Sorry." She placed her hand on her lips and replied, "It's...okay. I guess?" I smirked at her, "I told you I'll get you back." "Yeah, yeah. Come on, you baby." Clarity smiled, climbing out of the kitchen window. I followed her and we climbed over the gate. We ran as fast as we could, avoiding infected along the way. Snow eventually started to fall. I saw a small abandoned house and we went inside. No people, no infected, no problem. After I set my bag down on the couch, Clarity was checking if the lights were working, they weren't. So, she took out a flash like candle and placed it in between us.

*Silence*

"...Clarity? Why don't you talk to me?"

I asked her. Clarity shrugged. I really hate it when there's a quite room, so I asked, "Well...now's a good time to get to know one another. Wanna go first?" Clarity looked at me and smiled, nodded her head. "W-well...I never had a father," clarity stared, moving her black hair to the side of her head. "I lived alone with my mother. She went out with a guy I never knew because she would always send me to her sister's house. I was only 11 when this happened. Finally, a few months later, I finally met my mother's boyfriend, his name is James." Clarity's voice sounded like it was breaking as she continued,

"This relationship was fine until...it happened."

"What happened?"

"I don't know how it happened, but I woke up to a loud crash downstairs. I got up and ran downstairs to see..."

Clarity paused, using her hand to wipe a tear away. "James killed my mother. O-once he saw me, I ran upstairs with the house phone and ran in the bathroom. I locked it just in time before James could open it. I called the police as james tried knocking the bathroom door open. After I finished, I hid the bath tub, hoping the psychotic killer won't knock the door down. Finally, the police came and arrested James. I was sent to Aunt Angie's house so I can live with her. But weeks later, the news said an accident happened on the road of Happy Tree Valley and James escaped. He was coming after me. A few days later, I was right."

I stood up and sat next to clarity. "Sorry I asked. Did you..." I asked her. Clarity hesitated, nodding her head soon after. "I had to kill him, if I didn't I would've ended up where my mom and aunt angie is too...the cemetery."

*Silence*

"Should I tell you about my life?"

I asked clarity. Clarity shook her head, "Aizen told me about you. I'm really sorry about your mother and friends." I looked down. Damn this is awkward. "Oh...back at the kitchen...and about...the kiss?" clarity said to me, smiling. "What? I didn't know what else to think! Was it...sorry for asking but, your first kiss?" I asked. Clarity placed her hands on her lips, looked away from me, and nodded, blushing. "Wow, I feel stupid...sorry." I said, blushing myself. Then, clarity looked up at me and moved closer to me. "H-hey...what are you...?" I asked as she placed her hand behind my head. I blushed in embarrassment as clarity moved closer to me, noses nearly touching. Then, clarity puts her hands on my chest and slowly pushes me back on the couch we were on. "Clarity...c-clarity wait..." I said, embarrassed as clarity moved closer. I shut my eyes, expecting her to kiss me, but I heard a snort from above me. I opened my eyes and clarity burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! Wow, I ever knew how soft you were until now! I can't believe you let me do that to you! HAHAHA! HAHA-*GASP!*" Clarity laughed, as she sat on top of me. I honestly didn't care, I got up and pounced on her. She shrieked, and I placed my hands on her arms. "Cain!" she yelled. "Sure...I'm soft." I said, still blushing as I leaned in to her. Clarity blushed heavily and I whispered in her ear,

"But not as soft as you, Clarity."

And...well, it's obvious what happen when I leaned in to her lips.


	25. Chapter 25: Remedy

**Infected **

**Chapter 25: Remedy**

The next morning, Clarity and I walked out of the abandoned house and walked back to hers. We fought some infected along the way. Clarity promised me that she'll teach me how to use a gun but honestly, I didn't want to know. "Hey cain?" clarity said to me. "Yeah?" I replied.

"Wanna hear a joke?"

"Why?"

"Because it's awkward when it's quiet."

"Fine...only one."

"How do porcupines kiss each other?"

"Hmm...how?"

"Very Carefully."

"...Hehe...Haha...that's actually pretty funny."

Finally, clarity and I made it back. He opened the gate for us and we went inside. "Clarity! Cain! You made it back!" leo said, hugging his cousin. Clarity hugged the brown bear back and we went inside to unpack the food that was in our bags. Clarity took out he two guns that were in her bag and helped me unpack. "You two seem close. What happened on the trip?" leo asked. Clarity and I looked at one another and shook or heads. "Nope! Nothing happened!" I quickly said, grinning. "Yep! Absolutely nothing!" clarity added. Leo picked up one of the guns and replied, "You didn't use any ammo?" Clarity walked from me and started to stuff the fridge with water. "Nope! We were lucky when those guys didn't take our bags." she replied. I started to put my jacket down when suddenly-

*BANG!*

Startled, I turned around and my heart sunk. Leo had shot Clarity. Clarity looked in shock as her arm was bleeding heavily. She took her left arm, fell to her knees, and fell on the ground. "CLARITY!" I screamed from the top of my lungs. I looked at leo, who smirked evilly and said to me, pointing the gun at me and said,

"Looks like I don't need you two anymore."

I quickly ducked as leo fired. It missed, I didn't know how many bullets were inside of the gun, but I had to dodge as many as I could. "You can't dodge these bullet's forever, cain!" leo said, shooting at my tail. I moved it and I slipped on the floor. I turned around an leo stepped on my tail to keep me from moving. I yelped as the gun was met with my face. I froze, staring into Leo's dark eyes, pleading for him not to kill me. "Why? Leo? Why?" I asked, my ears flattening against my head. "Because," leo grinned, putting his finger on the trigger and answered,

"The world is full of thieves and liars. You can't trust anyone. Because of you and clarity stealing food from those wolves, I don't need to worry about stealing anymore stuff. As soon as I kill you, I'll make sure your friends won't see your corpse in this house ever again."

I shut my eyes, waiting for the inevitable...

*Click!*

I opened my eyes and leo looked at his gun, confused. Is it empty? I looked at clarity's gun that was lying on the table. Leo noticed clarity's gun. We looked at each other, and I kicked Leo's leg off of my tail. He didn't care as he lunged for clarity's gun. I tackled him to the wall and punched his face. He did the same to me, but I dodged his blow. Leo used his leg to kick me off of him and I fell beside clarity. Leo grabbed Clarity's gun and aimed at me. I ducked once more and missed. I made my way to the exit of the kitchen, but Leo shot near my foot. I fell down, searching for any injuries on my foot. I was going to get up until leo kicked my stomach, making me fall down again. "AGH!" I grunted and held my stomach. I slowly got up again until...

*BANG!*

"KKKKKKKYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Leo aimed at my tail and shot it. I screamed in pain, holding my delicate tail with my hand. Tears welled up as leo aimed for my head. "Goodbye Cain." leo growled.

*BANG!*

I flinched, leo didn't shoot me. The bang came from behind him. His shoulder was leaking blood as he fell on the floor. I gasped as I saw Clarity holding another gun. She panted, dropping the gun and plopped onto the ground. "Cl-clarity!" I cried, getting up and ran to the light orange fox. I put her in my arms and shook her. "Clarity! Please! Clair!" I pleaded, moving her dyed blue hair strand out of her face. "Clarity..." I whimpered. Then, clarity coughed. She opened her eyes and looked at me with her brown eyes. "Ca...cain...?" she weakly said. I placed my forehead onto hers. "Oh clarity! Clarity..." I whimpered, tears were getting ready to fall out of my eyes. There was something I had to, I remembered a first aid kit inside of one of the bags. I picked up clarity and placed her on the couch. I started to call for Aizen. "AIZEN! Aizen! I need your help!" I looked for aizen, but I couldn't find him. I couldn't find Flare either. Then, I saw angel walking out of the room, rubbing his eye. He didn't have his blue winter cap on, allowing me to see his spiky brunette hair. "Angel!" I called him. Angel's ears perked up. I walked to him and asked, "Where's Aizen?" "He's...*Yawn* with flarey. They went to look for more survivors for Mr. Leo while he...waited for you guys to come back." angel answered, with his quiet voice. "Oh no...nononononono..." I said. Angel looked at me confused. I ran downstairs and grabbed the first aid kit from the kitchen. Slowly and carefully, I wrapped the bandage around clarity's arm wound. She whimpered in pain, opening her brown eyes. "Sorry, Clair." I said to her. I looked at the window, seeing some infected roaming around. Then, "C-cain..." clarity said to me, placing her hand on mine. I looked at her and she pointed upstairs. "Pa...in...killers...are inside...the closet." she said. Pain killers? Closet? I quickly ran upstairs and into the closet. I saw a bag and opened it. I saw bottles of pain killers inside. I whistled,

"Wow. You guys have everything."

I went downstairs and took a bottle of water from the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was Leo's body. It was gone. I desperately searched for him, but that didn't matter. I walked back to clarity, who started moaning in pain. I took out one pill and gave it to her. After she took it, she sighed and hid her face from me. "I'm really sorry, clair. Wasn't leo your only fa-" I said to her. "Don't bring it up...please." she said, facing me with her tired brown eyes. I placed my hand on her face, wiping blood and tears off her face. Clarity stayed quiet for a moment. I could tell she had something to tell me, but was hesitating. "What is it, clarity?" I asked her. "Cain...am I..." clarity started to say. "Am I going to turn into an infected?" I looked down and put both of my hands onto one of hers. "No...not on my watch. I won't let you turn into one of those things." I replied to her, kissing her forehead. Clarity smiled, shutting her eyes to sleep. The only thing that bothered me was leo suddenly disappearing when clarity shot him in the shoulder. I sighed, sitting down on the couch as I waited for Aizen and Flare to come back. Finally, an hour later, a knock came on the door. I answered it and Aizen and flare were there. "Oh! You're back! Did you find food or...hey, what's wrong?" aizen asked. I noticed aizen and flare were holding hands. I sighed and explained what happened ever since clarity and I arrived home.

Aizen and Flare found a survivors. One is Danny. He's a blue bear and wore a white shirt. He's also an adult, thank god, along with the other. She's also an adult, a pink bear named Diana. They're both husband and wife and got married in time before this all started. As I finished the explanation, aizen was shocked. "He's gone!? *GASP!* Did he take angel!?" aizen cried. Then, angel came down the steps. "Bro!" angel cried, running to aizen and gave him a huge hug. "I'm fine! What about Blaze?" aizen replied, petting his spiky hair. "Sleeping." angel said. Then, Dan noticed clarity lying on the couch. "Who's she?" he asked. "Clarity!? Oh god, she's been shot, right?" aizen asked me. I slowly nodded my head. "Shot? Where?" Diana asked. "Arm. Left." I answered. Diana faced Dan and nodded. Dan walked to me and said,

"I'm a doctor...well, used to. I can fix her up. It's the least I can do to repay aizen and flare for finding us."

My eyes was filled with hope. A wide smile appeared on my face. "Th-thank you!"


	26. Chapter 26: Bite

**Infected **

**Chapter 26: Bite  
**

I'm not sure how long I waited. Maybe two hours? I don't know, I'm just really agitated about Clarity. Diana told me that Dan will tell us if she's alright. I just need to be patient. Blaze is slowly growing up. He just learned how to crawl. It's night time now and Dan came downstairs. I instantly got up. "Is...clarity alright?" I asked, worried. Dan had a wide smile on his face and replied,

"It was a huge success! The bullet is no longer in her shoulder. She'll be alright as long as she gets rest."

I smiled as well, wiping tears away from my face and sighed in relief. "Th-thank you so much, dan." I said, sitting down again. Hours later, we all went to sleep. I soon woke up by the sound of the dogs barking. At first, I thought one of them fought off an infected or gotten into a fight. But, something seemed wrong. I slowly got up, placing Angel next to aizen, who fell asleep on me, and looked out of the backyard window. Nothing. But, I did hear dogs barking. I sighed, "Must be fighting or scaring a wild animal off..." I was going back to bed, until the dogs started whimpering. What the hell? I looked out the window once more, nothing. I grabbed Leo's gun, and went outside. I could feel myself shaking a little. I gulped and looked around. One of the German Shepard dogs noticed me and lowered its head, wagging its tail and walked over to me. "What's wrong, Ceaser?" I asked, petting the German Shepard on his head. He continued to cry, sitting down and soon lied down. I rubbed his stomach, trying to comfort him. Suddenly, one pit-bull dog growled at me. "Whoa! What's wrong, Buster?" I asked, quickly standing up. Buster continued to growl. Buster is always a quiet dog, he never growls at anyone unless...there's an infected nearby. Slowly, I turned around and saw an infected wolf, growling as well. Just before I could shoot it, it whacked the gun out of my hand and tackled me. I screamed, buster running after the infected. Before I knew it, everything went black when I hit my head on a rock. I only heard dogs barking and an infected screeching in pain. Minutes later, I woke up and buster was licking my arm. "Buster...what are you-" I asked, moaning in pain. Suddenly, I froze, I saw a bite wound on my arm. No...no...no! I quickly got up and looked at it. "I-I'm...infected?! No...please god no...no!" I begged. I started tearing up. I fell to my knees and started crying. Then, I heard buster crying, lowering his head. Why did he look guilty? "I...I better...clean this up." I thought to myself, walking back to this house, picking up the gun. I walked in the kitchen and searched for bandages. Suddenly,

"Cain?"

Startled, I turned and saw Clarity, rubbing her eye. God was I happy to see her. I wanted to hug her, but I didn't want her to see my arm. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Um...nothing. What are you doing up?" I lied. "Well...I got thirsty and decided to get water." clarity answered, opening the fridge to pull out a water bottle. I looked down at my bloody bite wound. I knew I had to tell her eventually, but not right now because I don't want to worry her.

Two hours later, the sun came up. I didn't get any sleep at all because I was worried that if I fall asleep, I'll turn. I got up from the couch and looked at my arm. Tears welled up and I wiped them away. Then,

"Cain...what's that?"

I suddenly looked up. Aizen was looking at my bitten arm.

"Shit."

I thought. I sighed and told him what happened. Aizen's eyes widen. "N-no...dude, you're my best friend! D-damn it...let me see." aizen replied, devastated. "Um...are you sure?" I said. Aizen kneeled down and nodded. I slowly unwrapped my bandaged and aizen saw my bloody bite wound. "Wait...an infected's jaw isn't that wide." aizen said. I looked closely, aizen's right, there's no way an infected's mouth can bite over my arm. If an infected didn't bite me...what did? Then, I remembered buster's guilt face. I got up, went outside, and saw other dogs playing. I looked around to find Buster. I saw him lying under a tree, alone. I walked up to him. Buster saw me and started crying. "You must've bit me by mistake, did you, boy?" I gently said to him. The pit bull dog whimpered, gently licking my hand. I started to pet his head. It makes sense. Buster must've bit me by mistake. And ow, he bites hard. I'm so relieved that I'm not infected. "Cain!" a voice called. I turned and saw dan.

"Aizen told me about our bite wound. Come on, let's clean it up before it really gets infected. Alright?"

"Sure."

I followed Dan inside the house and he fixed my wounded arm. By the time he was done, Clarity was still asleep. Wait until I tell her the good news tomorrow.


End file.
